ScarsCry
by ageha obsessed
Summary: AU. 'A loved woman is cherished' Kyoko wonders where she heard that. If it was true, then doesn't that mean Sho never loved her to begin with? Ai said her future was about to change, she can't help but agree when she saw him walking towards her in confident strides.
1. Circumstances

**As I promised, something even better than 'Loving You' I hope. Tell me what you think of it, this has been haunting my dreams. The setting that I'm using is a normal high school. Everyone is in school and yes, Ren is too. I've never read a Skip beat fic that portrayed Ren as a student before…so; this is what I've come up with. If the characters are OC, just bear with me here, I'm changing the whole thing as I go. Some pasts will be altered. Just a fair warning, before someone starts complaining, okay?**

**Credits, credits, this fic is inspired by buloy's own high school spin off; Diamonds and Coals. Oh, and I've put in my own character, I think she's fairly interesting and sarcastic…anyway, pay attention, okay? ^_^**

**Sorry, I'm changing this around again, in this, Ren, Kyoko and the gang is not actors. That's all I'm telling you.**

**ScarsCry**

**Chapter 1: Circumstances…**

* * *

"She's so scary."

"Yeah, she carries around those voodoo dolls, right?"

"I heard she once cursed someone, till that person had to drop out of school."

"Scary."

"Why would she do that?"

"She's a real witch."

"Of course, that's why no one wants to be her friend."

"Did you know the reason she enrolled here?"

"Is there a specific reason?"

"Yeah, yeah, it's 'cause of Sho Fuwa. It's because she's in love with him."

"Eeh! No way!"

"It's true! I noticed her stalking him!"

"Hmph, as if she could ever get Sho-kun. That's impossible; Sho-kun would never fall for a corner girl like her."

"We should tell her to drop out of here; no one needs someone like that near Sho-kun right?"

The notion was agreed by a group of girls standing in the hallway. They murmured their agreement, some laughed harshly and others nodded enthusiastically.

Famous last words.

When the time came to actually do it…here's what happened.

* * *

"_Kyoko Mogami, please come with us please."_

_Kyoko at the time was reading her book on the best materials for voodoo dolls and other things, when the girls called her out. And like any other shoujo manga, the girls intended to 'bully' Kyoko until she left their Sho-kun alone._

"_Leave Sho-kun alone."_

"_Yeah, he doesn't need a__** flat-chested girl with any sex appeal **__chasing after him." At this statement, Kyoko winced from an invisible arrow that shot through her._

"_He's our __**prince**__." Another arrow was shot._

"_It doesn't matter even if you're in __**love **__with him, we don't approve you as worthy companion for Sho-kun." A rather long arrow pierced through her._

_Strike three!_

_She rose from her knees and let out a dark aura. The group of girls backed away, feeling much like they were in danger. Venomously, Kyoko asked. "Repeat that last sentence, __**please**__."_

"_We—we don't approve…"_

"_The __**other **__one."_

"_It…it doesn't matter even if you're…in love with him?" one of the cowering girls answered her._

_For a moment, nothing happened, and they were fooled by the calm, momentary pause before Kyoko released her grudges, laughing like the spawn of Satan himself. The girls, scared whimpered, as Kyoko told them firmly._

"_I will never fall in __**love**__ with that baka. Not after what he did to me…I will never fall for the illusion of love again!" she spat venomously, with that her grudges charged._

_After that, pretty much everyone in the whole school heard the frightened screams the Sho fan-girls emitted. They found them later, after school had ended, cowering in a dark huddling together, whimpering in fright like a wounded animal. They whispered incoherently, 'demon,' 'evil' and 'scary.'_

_Inconveniently, Kyoko was passing through when they were asked who did this to them. One look at Kyoko and they ran away like their lives depended on it._

* * *

Thus, it began Kyoko's reign of terror, as the rumors spread throughout the whole school and became more warped as it passed on through more ears. Earning, Kyoko the nicknames, 'The Black Witch,' 'Boss,' 'Demented demon,' 'Spawn of Satan,' and all the like. It seemed like the nicknames and rumors grew even more idiotic and warped as more time passed by.

_It's that entire stupid bastard's fault! That Sho-Baka! If he wasn't so stupid in dealing with them then; I wouldn't have to deal with stupid rumors like this. Now my plans for revenge were ruined. I can't even have any friends! Stupid Shoutarou, give me back my high school dreams!_

Kyoko ranted as she sat quietly in the library. Her original plan was to become the most popular girl in school but after the rumor spread, there was no way that could happen. After she was popular, she would make him fall in love with her and then…she would dump him and humiliate him as he did to her! In order to fulfill her goals, she even dyed her hair orange so that she could become more appealing. Girls with foreign color hair were always popular right?

It was all futile, because, Shoutaro didn't even notice her. Even though, they were childhood friends for so long he couldn't even recognize her! It made her angry beyond belief. Here, she was still thinking of how she would get revenge after he had dumped her like leftovers and he had already forgotten about her. Did she really mean so little to him, even though she had dedicated herself to him for her entire sixteen years?

Kyoko felt sick, it was like her mother all over again. What was it with people and hurting her like this? Did she have some kind of invisible sign that says 'I'm a masochist.'?

"Whatcha doin'?"

Kyoko took a glance behind her to give whoever it was that was intruding on her sanctuary. _No one _did that. Her grudges proved to be quite useful in scaring the common population, the habitat? _**Screeching, loud, obnoxious **_high school girls and everything else in between.

She saw a girl, maybe a few years older by her, grinning. She had this expectant look in her eye. Kyoko's eyebrow twitched in annoyance but still she didn't back down, instead she inched closer to peek over what Kyoko was doing. A slight cold shiver ran up Kyoko's spine and Kyoko felt something ominous would happen if she were to allow the strange girl to stay.

"Go away." She said curtly, and with it she gave the older looking girl her most vicious stare. However, instead of running for the hills like everyone else, the older looking girl looked surprised.

"You can see me?" she asked Kyoko.

_What kind of question is that? Of course I can see you! _Deciding that the older girl was just poking fun at her, she kept quiet, determined to just ignore her. Her homework wasn't going to do itself. And she had to turn the assignment in by tomorrow.

_Let's see, for this question you have to use this equation…_

Kyoko spent at least the next thirty minutes doing her homework, finishing it and had successfully kept to herself. School was over, and she should head home and to her job before she was late. She ignored the presence _very _near her.

Except…it's kind of hard to do so when that person is staring at you in the face—approximately, three inches from your face to be exact. Kyoko's eyes furrowed in annoyance, she didn't even have to look to know the girl wanted something from her, she could feel the heat of the stare.

"What do you want?" Kyoko snapped, but soon the anger was replaced with shock. Her mouth gaped open, her eyes as big as saucers.

The girl _was _staring at her, _still _staring at Kyoko but she was…_upside-down?_

_How is that even possible?_

"Ah, the infamous, 'what the heck is going on?' look. Everyone does that." the girl stated.

_She was floating—in mid-air…no one can do that! ...unless…_

"A—a…"

"Come on, it's on the tip of your tongue, I'm a…?" the girl coaxed her.

"G—Ghost!"

"Bingo!" the ghost-girl clapped in a mocking fashion but Kyoko was too shocked to be angry.

"Get back! I…I have a charm!" Kyoko exclaimed pulling out the charm she had gotten at a shrine. With it, the ghost will...

"Please…let Shoutaro and me live happily forever? What's that?" the ghost read.

"That's not…" Kyoko stammered when her charm didn't work. _It was the wrong charm! How can you exorcise a ghost with the god of love?_ She quickly grabbed a piece of paper, scrunched it up and twisted it into a cross. "Here, with the name of Jesus, be gone!" she thrust the paper into the ghost's face.

"I'm not Christian." The ghost informed Kyoko in a flat bored tone.

Quickly Kyoko changed and took out prayer beads, like a cartoon (dramatic and all) and shook it around like the monk priests, hoping it will exorcise the ghost. "Release this bounded soul from this earth…"

"Sorry, I'm not a Buddhist either." The ghost said, slightly amused with Kyoko's efforts to drive it away.

Kyoko's patience snapped into two and she brought out her ultimate weapon. She drew a circle on the ground with chalk and chanted 'Moroku' over and over again till there was smoke coming out from the circle. She screamed, "By the power vested in me as the underworld's emissary, take back this ghost into the underworld!"

The smoke dissipated and a loud pop echoed throughout the room. There was a slip of paper there. It read;

Sorry, your time period as our emissary had ended three days ago. Thank you for your services.

Love,

Hades.

Kyoko looked over to the ghost (hoping her ridiculous scheme had somehow worked), who shook her head and shrugged. "I'm not a demon…but I'm very impressed with your connections. You know Hades?"

At this remark Kyoko pulled at her hair and felt her sanity snap.

There was one last resort.

She pulled out her purse. And recited the chant…

"God of money…god of money…please help me…"

"Now you're just being insulting." The ghost commented, looking every bit annoyed at Kyoko's attempt to exorcise it. "And…I think you're forgetting something…_I'm a ghost—_Dead but lingering in this world. Do you get it? _I. Am. Dead._"

A small light of sanity re-entered Kyoko's eyes and brain. She was talking to a ghost.

…

_Oh._

_..._

_..._

_Oooooh._

She fainted from the shock at long last. She heard the ghost said something. "Jeez, too slow at reacting…" before she felt the darkness swallow her.

* * *

"Is she okay?"

"I should think so; it's mostly stress and fatigue. Thanks for bringing her here."

"It's nothing. I did what anyone would do, sensei."

"O-oh, yes. You're right, how silly of me."

"Tch, just say you actually feel jealous that prince charming here carried her, instead of you. You old cougar, you shouldn't be flirting with a student!" a voice chastised. It was a voice that Kyoko was recently acquainted with but was familiar to her.

Her eyes snapped open and pointed to the ghost that was obviously amused with her annoyance. Kyoko spotted her immediately since the ghost-girl was the first thing that came to mind when she heard her voice. "YOU!" too bad, she disregarded her surroundings in the process being too angry to think at the moment.

"What do you want?" Kyoko screamed.

"Huh?" Ren was confused.

"You stupid annoying person!" she yelled out to the ghost. Ren was a little offended. He carried her to the infirmary and this was what he got? He didn't expect her to be vowing to him her eternal gratefulness but a simple 'thank you' would have sufficed. But getting insulted to the face? That was not something he could tolerate. He was about to tell her that when she looked at him and looked completely confused.

"Huh? Where am I? Who are you?"

Ren was baffled, was this girl completely insane? Just about a second ago she was screaming her head off at him and now she was asking who he was. His voice carried a neutral tone, being confused with the entire situation. "You passed out in the library. I found you and brought you to the infirmary."

She looked sheepish when she realized she was rude not thanking him for his help. Face flushed, she thanked him shyly. He nodded dumbly when her face changed again.

"It's none of your business!" she screamed at the wall. _Which mental institution did this girl escape from? _He asked inwardly.

"Come back here, you stupid ghost! I'll personally poltergeist you!" the girl screamed at a portion of harmless air.

_She'll do what? And did she just say…ghost? _Ren was totally thrown off; did she even know the meaning of poltergeist? Or was she just using big words she doesn't understand?

"I'm…sorry for Kyoko-san. She's a bit unique. I hope you won't change your mind about this school because of her." the infirmary sensei apologized.

He was determined to make his name here, even though he was caught off guard with the girl. "It's fine. Is she…okay?" he had to ask, it was perfectly reasonable question.

"Oh! No, no. She's a normal girl." He quirked his eyebrow at this and the older woman looked flushed as she confessed. "Kyoko-san is a good girl, even though she's…a little odd, she's a good student. Top in her year, she doesn't create problems but she doesn't know how to make friends. Of course, those nasty rumors about her don't help her situation."

He smiled, a little relieved and a little disappointed. _That girl wasn't __**her**_. _  
_

* * *

**Kyoko at the moment…**

She was fuming mad. She had to find that stupid ghost before it did anything…well, stupid! Like, like...wait, why was she looking for it again? A normal person would be running away by now...(Which proves, just how special our Kyoko is)

"You know, a girl like you shouldn't be frowning like that. It's scary." A voice interjected.

"You!"

"I'm kinda' bored hearing that. I _do _have a name you know." She said with a grin on her face but then it quickly fell. "Sorry, _had, _I had a name. I guess it hadn't sink in yet that I'm dead…" The ghost-girl had a complicated pained smile on.

Kyoko stopped fuming for a moment. Being so angry, she forgot that she was actually getting angry at a ghost—a very annoying ghost for one, but a ghost nonetheless.

"How did it happen?" Kyoko asked softly.

The ghost-girl looked surprised that Kyoko had asked at all but shrugged. "Don't know, don't remember. I was…I don't know…then, I was here."

"You don't remember how you died?"

"Uh, yeah sort of. I thought about going home, wherever it was, when I woke up, but nothing pops up. It's like my brain shut it out or something. Since then, I've been roaming around, pulling pranks here and there."

Kyoko narrowed her eyes. "That's not…"

"Nice? I know, but I've never done stuff like that so I thought I'd do something else till I'm struck with inspiration. It hasn't come yet though."

"When did you wake up?"

"Uh…roughly about three days ago."

"Hmmm…" Kyoko tried to recall about if there was a fire or a death on the news somewhere. While Kyoko was thinking, the ghost got tired of her silence and floated to sit on the railings. They were already on the school's roof, the ghost thought to herself, if she would ever go home.

She recalled small details of her living self. She liked chicken soup and the color purple. She really liked dancing. She had a big family, which most people called unorthodox and old-fashioned but they were happy. They had a big green lawn and a cat. It had black fur and a white tummy. Her name was Nana, because…that was the third word her baby sister said right after mama, and dada.

She had about four younger siblings—Three boys and a girl. She was the first-born. She loved both her parents. And she had people who loved her back…and she did something stupid that may have caused her to never be able to see them ever again.

Her heart wrenched in pain, except she was dead and no longer had the privilege of a beating heart. Regret swallowed her whole as she stared into the sunset.

_I have ears,_

_That listened,_

_But never heeded,_

_The neither wisdoms nor warnings,_

_That passed through them._

The ghost sucked in a deep breath, not that she needed to and continued.

_I possess eyes,_

_That neither pair,_

_Can see,_

_For what truly is,_

_The truth and lies,_

_For what is true beauty?_

_And for what is an ugly beast._

_A mouth,_

_I used with neglect,_

_To harm others,_

_And myself._

_I rely on my sense of touch,_

_Sense of smell,_

_As I am blind to the truth,_

_But they do not help me,_

_I welcome the darkness._

_The one thing I truly trust,_

_Is my rage and sorrows,_

_But what are they really?_

_Than a steep path,_

_To my destruction._

"Whose poem was that?" Kyoko's question rang too loud in the near smothering silence.

The ghost's answer was only one word. "A friend's." She kept her back to Kyoko, watching the sun set.

"It's sad." Kyoko told her, honestly. The girl-ghost didn't reply. When Kyoko heard the poem, she felt as if she had—they had somehow created a bond. A special bond of two people that understood loss and pain, and regret. She felt as if she could trust her.

"What's your name, ghost-san?"

The ghost chuckled. "I doubt you'll be able to pronounce it…my real name…you won't be able to."

Kyoko felt a little hurt and upset. She was reaching out here but…

"Ai…Call me that instead of my real name. The meaning's the same so…"

"Ai, I want to help you." She was firm. Kyoko looked at Ai but the ghost had her eyes shut. Ai sighed and managed a weak smile towards Kyoko.

"Why?" Ai asked her.

"…because we're the same." Kyoko answered honestly.

"We're not. But I'll take you up on your offer, and I'll help you get what you want."

"You don't know what I want." Kyoko responded warily.

"Of course, I do. We're not the same but we're similar to each other." A small pause. "You should be running away now. Striking a deal with the dead usually causes all sorts of trouble. Not a good idea, I watch a lot of movies, you know!" Ai tried to end her sentence as a huge lame joke but Kyoko was determined.

"I think _you're_ running from something." Kyoko's heart was beating fast, from fear or anticipation she wasn't sure but it was there. Her heart skipped a few beats at what Ai said next.

Ai laughed bitterly. "That's right, you got me there!" Ai narrowed her eyes at the living girl in front of her. "You want revenge? I can help you do that."

"How…"

"It's not really a secret when you put your 'evil' scheme on paper. A true mastermind keeps all his works in his head so that he never gets caught." Ai tapped her head."Your plan will get sniffed. It's weak."

"It's not!"

Ai quirked an eyebrow, amused. "Oh, it's not? Sorry, but seducing him for the sake of humiliating him later? That's pretty petty if you ask me and weak. It's so predictable that it won't even be funny."

"I…he deserves it! He used me! I loved him more than my own life. I put him over everything else and I dedicated my life to make him happy. But what did he do? He took advantage of me!" Kyoko fumed. This ghost had no right to tell her what was right and what was wrong!

"Who let him do that? It's you right? It's your own fault you're in this mess. Living every day, just to get revenge? Isn't that stupid?"

"That Sho-baka…"

"He's a baka, you say? Then, why are you wasting more time on him? Why are you still in love with him?"

"I'm not! I'll never fall in love—not ever again!" Ai was quiet but her eyes were narrowed dangerously.

"Are you blaming this on love, Kyoko?" Ai's voice was calm, quiet but it was sharp. "Are you really blaming your problems on something that couldn't even exist without your permission?" Kyoko couldn't move, she couldn't breathe. Ai sounded dangerous.

"You allowed yourself to love him, why are you blaming this on love? Maybe the guy was a bastard, but it's not an emotion at fault here—you are. If the guy you loved was a total ass, it was your fault for loving him despite knowing his nature. It's unfair to blame something else for your problems. Deal with it."

"You don't understand…I've never been loved. My own mother, you'd never understand the feeling of being betrayed by someone you love the most!"

"You're right; I would never know the loss of a mother's love because my mother loved me. But I do know the feeling of being betrayed. I know how it feels to cry in despair and to hate everything around me…but…it's not the end of the world. The way you're acting right now, do you know what it's called?" Ai told her, in a terribly bored tone, sarcastic most of the time and some of it held a tiny speck of self-loathing. "It's called victimizing yourself. Grow up; you're not the only one with problems. There are other people with even bigger problems but they're not whining about it, what gave _you_ the right to blame others for yours?"

"I…you don't understand!"

"No? Maybe not, but I've pretty much unraveled what's inside that pretty little head of yours, haven't I? That's more than enough." Ai sneered at her. "You irritate me. Are you the only one with problems? I'm telling you something important but you won't even listen! I learnt this lesson the hard way! And girl, you don't know how messy it'll get. Do you really want to go down this road? I can't even rest in peace because of my regrets! Do you know how vexing that is for a soul to forever wander this earth until the world ends? It's suffocating! I can't do anything and I have to watch people doing something as getting revenge, happy wasting precious time like this!" Ai quietened down for a minute and added, like an after thought. "You only get to live this life once...nothing more, nothing less..."

Kyoko was quiet. What could she say after all that? Ai said some pretty valid things…things she couldn't possibly rebut. Even though, she likes goofing off, it was very clear to Kyoko that Ai knew what she was talking about. She acknowledged her mistake and she changed for the better. Most people just ignore their problems and blame it on other people.

Kyoko winced internally, as she realized something.

_I was doing that…_

Ai sighed. "Sorry, I'm always emotional. My mother said it was a problem…but I was stubborn about it. Since, you know why I'm against getting petty revenge; I'll tell you how to get your revenge, in the cruelest way possible."

* * *

**Haha! It's completely confusing! Everything will be explained in the next chapter. So, how many of you like Ai? I really worked hard on her personality. I figured that I'm not that creative to write a story up to 188 chapters like Nakamura Yoshiki so, I'm using Ai as a catalyst for Kyoko to quickly realize that revenge on Sho isn't worth it. Though, since she's had this belief for quite some time, it'll take some time to move on, yeah? And that's the part I'm writing about! Oh, please review ^_^**


	2. Past and Future

**Right, I've been holding this chapter back to see if this story got positive reviews. Thankfully, the first four were absolutely positive. I'm sorry again about putting the plug on 'Loving You' but there was just no story line for me. It was all random stories I wrote together and tried to make them fit. The way the story was progressing made me feel bad even though I was writing it half-heartedly. A reviewer pointed out about what Ren's age, don't worry about it. I like Ren's canon age as well, but if I were to follow it then, I can't do the story line. I just subtracted Ren's age by one year so…**

**Well, I'm not going to spoil the surprise. Read if you want to know.**

**Disclaimer: I'm just going to say this once. I don't own Skip Beat. It's fan fiction after all, totally self-explanatory. **

**Chapter 2: Past and Future.**

* * *

**Previously:**

_Kyoko was quiet. What could she say after all that? Ai said some pretty valid things…things she couldn't possibly rebut. Even though, she likes goofing off, it was very clear to Kyoko that Ai knew what she was talking about. She acknowledged her mistake and she changed for the better. Most people just ignore their problems and blame it on other people. _

_Kyoko winced internally, as she realized something._

_**I was doing that…**_

_Ai sighed. "Sorry, I'm always emotional. My mother said it was a problem…but I was stubborn about it. Since, you know why I'm against getting petty revenge; I'll tell you how to get your revenge, in the cruelest way possible."_

* * *

_This hypocrite…this is going against with what she said before! How can I take anything she says seriously now? _Kyoko fumed the anger resurfacing. It must have been showing because Ai sighed.

"Right, I should have planned this better." She muttered to herself. Then, she focused to Kyoko, whom stared back with annoyance. "I guess what I'm saying doesn't make sense…but listen till the end and don't interject."

"How can I just take it when you practically shoved your opinion on me and then, start saying things that contradict your _own_ opinion?" Kyoko asked a little bitter that she was scolded for no reason apparently.

"As I was saying, please listen till the end. I've never been good with people…dead or alive, for that matter." Ai muttered a little frustrated with how the whole thing turned out. She going to make this work and she's going to make this girl see the truth even if it's the last thing she'll do…

…Right, not the best phrase for a ghost to be using.

Basics—starting with the basics never hurt. "This guy, what was his name again?"

"Shoutaro Fuwa—the bastard."

"…okay, so Sho, can you describe to me his characteristics?"

"He's the greatest scum on the earth! He's a cockroach that needs to be squashed and an insult to humanity!" Kyoko screamed out, her grudges raging vengeance behind her and swirled around her.

"…as much as I would have enjoyed that, I need you to take this seriously, Kyoko."

"I am taking this seriously!"

"I don't want to know how much you hate him. We've established that fact. What I want to know is what he's like, what he's done, who is Shoutaro Fuwa to you Kyoko? What did he do to the point where you can dedicate your life to him, knowing what he was like? What made you fall in love with him?" Ai was calm as she explained this. Because if Kyoko really wanted revenge then, she needed to acknowledge what her weak points were and her own faults for this type of scheme to work, although it wasn't really a scheme, not to normal people anyway.

"…" Kyoko couldn't answer right away; she never dwelled on why she loved Sho. It had been so long ago that she'd already forgotten the 'why' and was just content with the fact that she did love him. She made herself remember why she fell for him…why she let him steal her heart when they were younger.

"He…was familiar. At that time, I…was still trying to impress my mother but got rejected every time." Kyoko started out. She looked at Ai, and the ghost encouraged Kyoko to go on, not once interrupting Kyoko's past confessions. "Whenever I cried, he would always freeze up, because he didn't know what to do…" She remembered. _It was because he was pampered and loved by his parents…he didn't know what I was going through and didn't dare to assume to, in case, it sounded like he was bragging._ "In his own awkward way, he…really cared for me. He always played with me so, I forget about my mother…he was so tender back then. I guess…he was my anchor at that time…"

"He saved you from your pain." Ai offered as Kyoko was at a loss of words to describe what Sho was.

"…yeah." Kyoko smiled fondly. "Just like prince charming—my very own knight in shining armor."

"What else?" Ai asked her, quite happy there was some kind of progress.

"He's really childish…but he never shows that to other girls…except for me. He said it's because I'm the one who understands him best and it was uncool to show this side to the other girls. It made me happy when he said that…it was like I was his number one girl. His princess." Kyoko's eyes started to mist over as she recalled how pure her feelings for him had been. How did they change so drastically? Kyoko paused in her confession and Ai let her have a moment to herself. In a way, Kyoko was giving up a part of her past and a chip of her heart. In return, she would be released from the shackles of her rage…away from her own self-destruction.

"Then he betrayed you."

Kyoko shook her head. "With me, he had always been honest but as we got older that changed. He was always blunt to the point it offended people." Kyoko defended him. Why was she defending him? "He wanted people to listen to his ideas but he never wanted to compromise to make it work. He was spoiled…but that was understandable. I made him that way. I always did what he wanted and never said 'no' to him. That was my fault. He never said that he loved me. I misunderstood his 'comfort' with me for love."

"Hmm…but not entirely your fault. I'd say it was also his parents fault for raising him, believing he could have anything he wanted without working for it. Though, you played a part in it too." Ai said nonchalantly, as she was floating in air, she was lying on her back, a knee draped across one stretched-out knee. Her eyes were closed.

Kyoko felt comfortable, completely at ease with Ai and lay down on the floor herself. Her eyes memorized the orange hues of the sunset as a precious and important memory. "He's extremely passionate about his music. Even though, his father said he could never make it here in Tokyo, he never gave up. And he's actually pretty good at it." Kyoko smiled at the memory. There was one time when he taught her how to play an acoustic guitar…he was gentle with her as he showed her the right cords to pluck for a special tune. "…but he's also quite selfish…he orders me around as if I'm his slave…he thinks that too." Kyoko said, remembering the abuse she had received from him, most of them were emotional and he didn't even know that he'd inflicted on her.

"He's quite chivalrous…in his own way. He'd flirt and kiss but he would never sleep with just anyone. He treats girls' right…"

"…What about you Kyoko? He wasn't very fair to you was he?"

"No…no, he wasn't…I don't think he even saw me as a girl…"

"…because you have no sex appeal."

"That's right, because I…HEY!" Kyoko sat up glaring at the ghost for the unexpected insult.

Ai was rolling around in air, laughing hard. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But I couldn't resist."

"Next time, resist _harder._"

Ai wiped a tear from her eye, from laughing too much. "Oh lord, this is bad," Still trying to still her laughter. "…I had a good reason to."

"And?"

"It felt like you were falling in love with him all over again. It'd be great if you got over him but I really don't want to see you following him around again. A woman's got her pride after all; I hate it when a woman loves a man who doesn't appreciate her. It's too painful to watch." Ai said, her eyes spoke a deep degree of wisdom in that area.

"…sounds like you're talking from experience."

Ai gave a small bitter laugh. "Haha, you're sharp. That's good, but that's a story for another day. This is all about you today…or night…" Ai called out the time. Kyoko was startled that so much time had passed by without her realizing.

"Oh no! I'm late!" Kyoko exclaimed, rushing to get to work. Ai pulled her back as ridiculous as that sounds, she did. "Let go! I'm late for work."

"We're not done here."

"But…but I'm late!"

"Call in sick today."

"But…but I live there!"

"Bummer, but I can't let you go just yet."

"And why not?"

"Because there's a chance you'll ditch this idea and that's not a chance I'm willing to take. I'll let you go home when I'm convinced your heart is set on this."

"Why…why go to such lengths for me? …you don't know me…I don't know you. We only just met today. We're complete strangers."

Ai closed her eyes, her brows scrunched up as if she's remembering something painful. "You…remind me of me when I was lost. The difference between us was…I had my family. You don't…I feel like I should help you because I have experience in this. If I turn away, I'd feel bad about it. I'm already filled with regrets. Enough is enough; I don't want to add anything more to that list."

"…Thanks."

Ai didn't reply. But she started to fly over the railings on the roof. Then she spoke, "I'm giving you a choice here. Go home tonight and think about what you want. Do you want to be free or do you want to be bound to your past? The choice is yours…I remembered that my mother didn't force me into anything and we're even less than friends so, I don't have a right to demand anything of you. You have until tomorrow, after school. I'll only wait for an hour. You don't show up, I'll stop bothering you." with that, Ai zoomed off into the school premise. It was too dark for Kyoko to see where she'd gone and she felt a little uneasy with Ai's words. Wasn't it her that had insisted Kyoko listened to her? Why was she letting Kyoko choose now? This wasn't fair! She should finish what she started.

_It's because this has to be something you want_. Her consciousness pricked her. That's right; the first step to heal from her illness was to start making decisions by herself. She was no longer living for other people…this was for her…this was for her future.

* * *

"And this girl…she yelled at a wall?"

" Please shut up, Yashiro." Ren snapped but this was Ren so he was polite about it. But really what was so polite about 'shut up' even if you added a 'please' to it? It even made the gentlemanly smile look creepy as he said it.

"Oh this is too good. The normal Ren Tsuruga good looks didn't work on her. She calls you a…what was it? ...an ass—" Yashiro laughed merrily.

"—it wasn't that…"

"Oh I'm sorry…_you stupid annoying person._" With that, Yashiro laughed even louder. "Finally, a girl that doesn't swoon at the sight of the almighty Ren Tsuruga, the world is coming to the end!" Yashiro cackled gleefully.

"I don't feel that way."

"Of course you don't. Come on, Ren surely you'd feel a little insulted? All the girls you met fall in love with you. And you're telling me that you don't feel even a little bit offended that a girl did the exact opposite?" Yashiro teased him.

"Yuki, I already told you, it's not like that…and in fact, I found it a little refreshing." Ren told him. _Of course, let's not tell him I also think she's an escapee from a mental institution._

Yashiro looked at him, disbelieving his words. He looked at his friend from head to toe and not a thing was out of place. Ren wasn't lying. "Ren…are you in love?" Yashiro asked his friend.

It was too bad Ren choose that moment to take a sip of his drink. Now he sputtered it out and messing up his shirt in the process. Darn, it was his favorite shirt too. He coughed from shock and surprise. "Wha…What made you think that?"

"You…called her refreshing. You never called other girls that. Heck, you don't even remember them unless they were in your class or were somehow related to 'work'."

"You make me sound like a playboy, Yuki."

"…Aren't you? You treat them okay, you're a gentleman, but you flirt with them, and lead them on, you're a playboy."

"God, there is a reason why the dictionary was invented! Check it up, Yuki."

"Is there a reason why you're so antsy today?"

"What? I'm not."

"Is it because of that girl?"

"Listen here Yukihito, that girl passed out in the library. I found her and took her to the infirmary, like any other sane, _respectable _person would do. When she woke up, she screamed at me, insulted me and just as quickly she got confused, asked me who I am and thanked me. Prior to the few minutes earlier where she _insulted _me."

"You've dealt with worse."

"Yes, but that's not the problem here. It's you deciding in a whim that I'm in love with the lunatic! I think she escaped from a mental institution somewhere! How can I be _attracted _to her?"

"Are you?"

"_WHAT?_"

"Ren, you're over reacting."

"No I am not. Yuki listen to yourself, I don't have time for this."

"I just asked you a simple question; do you think she was attractive?"

Ren gritted his teeth in annoyance. If this man wasn't his closest friend and confidant, he'd strangle him already. He recalled back her features. She had a small petite frame, like some kind of fairy. Pale white skin and she had a thin neck. Her face was small and it held a sense of innocence, as the baby face around her face was still evidence, though disappearing quite quickly. She had a cute pert nose and sharp amber eyes. They were like twin golden suns. Her lips were pouty and were perfect for…

…

…What was he just thinking?

Did he just think they were perfectly _kissable_? Dear lord, he did. He even sounded like a poet in love with the way he described her. How the hell had he even noticed these details when they had only talked in less than five minutes?

_You did carry her,_ his mind chastised. Okay, so maybe he was admiring her features when she was unconscious, it's not like it was a crime…

Who was he kidding? He had acted like a total stalker. It wasn't his fault! The real him, _Kuon _was attracted to pretty things. It was something Ren Tsuruga also liked and although, Ren was more of a substance over appearances kind of guy. He was still a guy!

Conclusion: Ren thinks that the girl was _very _pretty.

Now, Ren feels like banging his head against the table. Why? That's because, it was better to embarrass himself than to deal with his annoying friend. Yuki had been bugging him to find a permanent girlfriend for months now and he just have too much on his plate and better things to do than to get into a relationship—a relationship that he would not be able to commit to, because he just doesn't have that privilege.

"Ren…" Yashiro grinned, Ren didn't see it but he certainly knew it was there. The jerk was enjoying this.

Ren was defeated this time. He couldn't deny it. He was _attracted _to a crazy girl…okay; let's just deny it, anyway.

"I don't think she's _attractive._ She's a lunatic, escaped—"

"—Uh, Ren?"

"—from god knows where. So, why would—"

"—okay, okay I get it…"

"—_I _be attracted to _her,_ of all people?" Ren looked quite pleased with his lie.

"Sorry for not being attractive then."

Ren blinked. A female sounding voice had said that. A female that sounded familiar. He looked over to Yashiro and his friend was mouthing the word 'idiot' and nudged him to look up. He didn't have to look far because a fairy was always relatively small and he was huge as a giant as Yuki had once joked about his insane height over the Japanese because he was a mixed blood. Even as he sat and while the girl stood, there were only a few inches in height.

Ren gaped, inwardly. _Shit! What do I do now?_ Because in front of him was a very pissed off Kyoko.

Kyoko was still thinking about Ai when she came back home to the Daruma-ya. She apologized to Taisho and Okami-san. Okami-san brushed it off and told Kyoko she needed to take time off work sometimes and go play instead like what girls her age do. Then, she had changed into her uniform, ready to serve customers. The flow of customers was slower than usual so, it made her feel less bad for coming in late. It was also because of that, that she managed to spot the kind senpai that had brought her to the infirmary earlier and the one she had been so rude before.

She was determined to show her how grateful she was for his help when she marched over to their table. She didn't know what she'd do but paying for him and his friend's meal seemed like a good start. It was unfortunate that she heard a snippet of their conversation that had made her blood boil. He thought she was a lunatic. That was a given since she had been shouting to a ghost in front of other people that probably couldn't see Ai. But, it was how the man sounded so much like Shoutaro just made her irritated. The tone and words were similar, that if she was blind she would've attacked the man thinking he was Shoutaro in the flesh. But she tried to regain the reins of control in her temper by reminding her he was a _senpai_ that had helped her.

Still, it didn't calm her nerves and something inside of her must have snapped. It might have been the recent stress dumped on her recently or the shock of talking to a ghost or it might have been the sudden but hard-to-digest revelation and bond with Ai she had experienced this evening. But either way, something just snapped inside of Kyoko Mogami.

And Ren was going to get it if he didn't somehow calm the girl down.

She had a bad day.

She was in an extremely bad mood that was slowly shifting to an even worse mood.

She had a temper as he had seen in the infirmary room.

…

He _liked _seeing her all riled up like this.

…

Something was _wrong_ with _him_. Definitely something wrong, he could always go to the doctor later to see what kind of illness he had contracted…

_She's angry_.

The thought fascinated him. Her face was red, flushed with anger. Her eyebrows were lined up, she was concentrated and determined. She gave out a challenging stance and her aura was screaming 'aggressive.'

He was beginning to love it…her expressions.

…

God, he really needed to see the doctor _now._ Before he does something stupid, like make her angrier.

"Good evening Kyoko-san, are you feeling better now?" he asked her with a faked smile, acting as if there was nothing wrong.

Yashiro shrieked in horror at Ren's bold actions that most probably made the girl madder, while offending her and making her hate Ren at the same time. There was no one who can piss people off like Ren when he wanted to do so. But he likes this girl! Why was he acting so _stupid_? Yashiro had to do something to neutralize the situation, he had to…

"I'm _fine _thank you, how surprising to see you here. I'm sorry but I accidently overheard your conversation with your friend. A _lunatic, who is_?" Kyoko asked sweetly with an equally fake semblance of a sweet smile, though her word and tone didn't match her appearance at all.

_Ren, you stupid idiot! _Yashiro screamed inwardly.

* * *

**I really liked this. So, I decided to make Ren a little less mature because he's young. And so how do you like it? I hope the beginning explained what Ai was talking about. Anyway, reviews please, I get better from there.**


	3. I decided

**Chapter 3: I decided…**

* * *

_I wonder what she's doing now…_

"Sho-chan!"

A rather loud whining interrupted his thoughts.

He turned to look at two puppy dog eyes, scowling. It was puppy.

"What?"

"What were you thinking about?"

"Hmm? Nothing special." He said dismissively.

"You're lying. You were smiling happily. Was it a girl?" she told him. Her tone was accusing.

Sho was an expert on Mimori already by now. If he said yes, then she would whine some more and annoy him when he wanted to be alone for once. There was one way to keep her quiet and make her leave him alone without hurting his rep.

"Who would I be thinking about?" he asked her. _Although she was right about it being a girl, Kyoko doesn't have enough appeal as a girl…_ He thought amusingly to himself.

"See! You're doing it again!" Mimori whined as she started tearing up.

_Shit!_ Sho had to diffuse the human 'bomb' before she explodes. He took Mimori's hand and 'lovingly' caressed them as he kissed softly each five fingers and smiled at her predatory. Immediately, Mimori swooned and fainted as pink hearts shoot out of her eyes.

She murmured unconsciously, 'Sho-chan' and other nonsense about being his girlfriend. Her friend, Shiori…or was it Kana? Whatever, another girl took Mimori away and left Sho free to do whatever he wanted.

It disturbed him a little that he had smiled unconsciously as he thought about his childhood friend. Even more so, after her indignant little declaration about taking 'revenge' on him. Who did she think she is? She was just plain old boring Kyoko. She had no style or appeal to him. She didn't even have a chest! How dare she say those things to him?

* * *

"_**Even if other people don't understand you, I do, Sho-chan. You're my number one.**__ Heh, does she really think being her number one is all that special? When I'm already a star?"_

"_That sounds cruel, Sho. What if she heard you saying this, she would be heartbroken. After all, she did drop out of high school and worked hard to pay for your living expenses." Shouko reprimanded him._

"_Hey that's not fair, I'm a prince. I've never done anything for myself. How can I live here by myself? Of course I had to take her along."_

"_How cruel, it almost sounds like you brought her along just to be your maid."_

"_Who says almost? That's what she is anyway. She's been that way since we were kids."_

"_Isn't she your childhood friend?"_

"_Hey! I asked her if she wanted to come or not. She said yes, it was a question. So I did, if I had stayed there any longer my parents would have married me off to Kyoko to take over the ryoukan. I don't want such a boring life style!"_

_Something whished through the air, and Sho dodged it and took Shouko with him._

_What the he…?_

_At the hallway, stood Kyoko, she was wearing a work uniform. He looked over her to see if there was anyone else who might have thrown the offending hamburger but there was no one there._

_Huh, so she heard huh?_

_When she started to shake slightly, Sho felt bad but his pride was too big for him to apologize and to save his sorry excuse of an image, he acted tough. _

"_Don't cry it's annoying." He told her. He could never stand it when she cried. He never knew what to do. And after all these, years she had never once cried in front of him. He panicked at the possibility that she would cry in front of him. It made him slightly guilty that he caused it._

_But…he was extremely confused when he heard her laughing instead. And then, she declared her revenge on him. He called security and mocked her as the security guards took her away._

_She hasn't shown up since then._

* * *

He thought, worried, that something might have happened to her. Maybe she got caught by human traffickers and got sold off in another country like in the urban legends? If so then he had to…

What? What would he do? If she did get caught then what obligation did he have to her to try and save her?

_How about being the jerk that convinced her to run away from Kyoto? _His consciousness reminded him.

That…she said yes. I had already asked her if she wanted to come with me to Tokyo! He screamed in protest. It wasn't his fault…nope, not his fault if anything happened to her.

_You knew how she felt about you and took advantage of that._ After that, his consciousness disappeared off somewhere. Guess it wasn't strong enough to stay long enough in his head. But it delivered the final blow that made him feel uneasy.

There was a tightening in his chest. He felt sick to the stomach…

_It's called feeling 'guilty,' stupid._ There it was, the irritating existence called his conscious. Then, it disappeared again.

Go to hell! He screamed. Great he was arguing with himself as he realized several students looking at him funny. He covered his face and went to the restroom. He looked into the mirror. And there it was…his yasha* face. The expression he wore when he was angry. It looked disgusting and made him look ugly.

It wouldn't go away for a while so; he'd ditched the next class till it went away. It was chemistry for the next period anyway. It wasn't all that important.

"**Uh, hello? That's like very important you know!" the author screamed in the back drop. Two guys in black suits, wearing black sun glasses showed up and dragged the screaming author away. **

"**Hey! Who are you guys? This is my fic! You can't do this to me! I have rights!" the author screamed but alas, no one paid attention to the very bizarre kidnapping taking place in front of them and chose instead to focus to a handsome man in the corridor. **

"**Damn you beautiful people!" a slow faint shout was heard but wasn't heeded to.**

(Sorry, couldn't resist. And that's our commercial, sponsored by 'Men in Black' and Serengeti sun glasses…*sigh* I'm not funny…); D

_Kyoko is smart; she wouldn't get into that kind of situation._ Happy with this, Sho pushed all worries for his childhood friend.

As for the possibility for her taking revenge on him…it was a one chance in a bil…what was the biggest number? ...no, it was a one chance in a goggle…

…

The first one sounded better. Anyway, _he _was a rising star while _she _was nobody important.

But speaking of stars, there was one rival he couldn't beat no matter what he did. Ren Tsuruga…for some reason, people like him better than they liked him. Sho Fuwa was the new face of modeling, at least that was what he proclaimed himself. Ren Tsuruga was a well-known model that managed to steal the public's attention by the whisper of his name alone. He had been a model for a few years already since he was at the tender age of fifteen, where he had appeared out of the blue. No one knew where he had come from but he was a teenager with talent and thus, they dubbed him as the gift from God.

They said that the entire photo shoot he was in, was all a complete success. Everyone wanted him to model for them. It irritated him to no end that no one would pass up _his_ face for _Ren Tsuruga's face_. Ren Tsuruga had a small face that didn't fit with his tall frame. Though, recently, Sho's popularity had been shooting up after he was in a promo MV for some new idol. The song was called…'Prisoner,'or something. It was a personal goal of his, to beat Ren Tsuruga, out of the modeling world where then _he_ would take the throne to a new era of _his_ fame.

_He,_ Sho regarded as much venom he could muster, had been out of action for a few months already and when he first heard it he had laughed in glee because it was his chance to turn the tables. No one knew where he was and Sho thought that it was because Ren Tsuruga knew that he couldn't compete against _him_ and had decided to run away! In the time, Ren Tsuruga was in _hiding_, he Sho Fuwa would rise to the top and become _the number one _in all of Japan!

His scheme had seemed brilliant at the time but had proven to be worthless in time. The bastard hadn't been active for almost a year but still he stood in the way. He was even _gaining _fans while doing nothing, when Sho had been busting his butt here for the number one spot. But what did that achieve? He rose, oh; he certainly did, to number seven. He was stinking' number seven even after all the effort he put in!

How was that fair? Of course, if our model here had been putting _real _effort than going around flirting with girls then _maybe _he would've gotten a higher standing…well, maybe being the key word. No one likes a rotten, childish, whining model and that was everything Sho was being right now.

He blamed it on people who couldn't see his _talent_ when all his photos had no real genuine emotion or soul captured. It was just soulless photography. He blamed it on stupid people who couldn't see what a fraud Ren Tsuruga was, even though he had never met the man. Truth was our dear Ren didn't even know Sho because he had been busy working, to the point where he didn't watch TV or watch the commercials he was in.

So while he was busy complaining in his head he didn't notice a girl running towards him, being chased by two men in black suits and black sun glasses that stopped next to him, and kicked him in the shins.

She yelled something that didn't make sense to him. "If it didn't make people angry then, I'd kick you somewhere _else._" As Sho winced at her implications, the two men in black carried her off. One of them said to no one in particular as he pressed a hand to his ears.

"We've recaptured the lunatic. Returning to base now."

"I am not a lunatic! You can't do this to me!" she yelled out but the other man gagged her and they all sweat dropped at the crazed girl's antics. Somehow, she broke loose from their hold and started running the other direction.

She passed an amazed Ren.

Both Ren and Sho thought, _where did she escape from?_

Then each followed by,

Ren: _If that's crazy, then, I've just reaffirmed my suspicions about Kyoko._

Sho: _What the hell is wrong with chicks these days?_

Slightly disoriented by the ridiculously bizarre incident, it didn't register in Sho's brain that the one helping him stand up was the one and only Ren Tsuruga.

As he watched his _self-proclaimed _rival turn away, his brain suddenly clicked the facts and his anger returned full-force.

"Hey!"

Ren turned to look at the younger boy he helped earlier. He was looking at him with utter contempt.

"Don't think that because you're good-looking that you can stay at the top."

At this, Ren raised an eyebrow. He didn't response but gave Sho a look that said, 'Are you serious?'

A few people snickered at the back as Ren's response to Sho's provocation that led to question Sho's _preferences._

Sho turned red from both embarrassment and anger. "I didn't mean it like that, bastard. I'm just saying your skills are third-rate!"

Already, Kuon was surfacing when he was obviously openly insulted. "And your skills are…first rate?"

"Of course."

"Then, I must apologize, because I have no idea who you are." Ren coolly delivered a sentence that effectively killed Sho's insult, by… (Wait for it)…insulting him back—subtly.

In the distance Ren spotted a girl he had been looking for, and left Sho to gape at the spot where he previously stood.

Not only did the bastard shoot his words down, he also insulted him in the worst way possible. He sugarcoated it!

Sho forgot to ask himself something important. What was a super model like Ren Tsuruga doing in his school? Well, you will find out soon enough.

* * *

Kyoko was feeling giddy and excited and nervous. She still hadn't made a decision on what Ai had asked her. Was revenge more important than her life? But wasn't most of her life already wasted for that bastard? It was her right to exact her revenge on Sho!

Her mind kept going in circles and she couldn't decide at all. She felt a shiver running through her spine all day; something was going to happen today…she felt expectant for some reason. When she came to her surroundings, everyone was looking at her, most of the females were glaring at her, and some looked at her with envy. When she focused on where the problem lies…it stood about three feet from her, _smiling_.

It was the same Ren Tsuruga that she had done that 'unspeakable' thing to.

She froze like a deer in headlights but her body moved when her mind screamed at her. _Run!_

And as she ran he walked behind her, following her, while still looking as elegant as a…how do you describe a man as elegant? It didn't matter, she was practically running away from him right now, and he was still walking but he was catching up! Her short legs was moving as fast as they could! But those damn long legs were catching up! He smiled even brighter but it made her even more determined to run even faster, away from smile was _evil,_ it tricked everyone to think he's not angry and when he catches you off guard he pounces and eats his prey _alive_. That charismatic but intimidating aura is not to be messed with!

And in her mental picture was her, as the frightened rabbit and Ren as, the creepy smiling lion, biding his time to attack her.

She saw her escape and for once thanked God for making her into a girl. As she hurriedly ran to the girl's rest room, a hand slammed the entrance shut once more. She didn't have to turn to know and see that the lion had pounced.

"This…running away from me, without greeting me…is quite rude, because I'm somewhat your senior."

She felt trapped. She felt cornered. So, she…wait, what did he mean by senior?

"Oh, I forgot to mention it _yesterday. But I'm transferring in this school as a third-year,_ so technically…I'm your senior, aren't I?"

She paled as the possibility of them running into each other had significantly increased.

"Good..."

"You're facing the wrong way."

She turned and quietly stuttered her greetings.

"What? No middle finger today?" he smiled _pleasantly._

_What an unforgiving person._ He must have read her mind because he asked her. "You just thought that I'm an unforgiving person didn't you?"

She shook her head vehemently but when his smile grew even brighter, she cried waterfalls as she admitted to her lie. Unable to help it, he chuckled as he was reminded by her a certain person who was also very bad at lying.

They were interrupted by a shocked Yashiro, who had the wrong idea (Really, where does he get these dirty ideas anyway?). As Ren explained to Yashiro what had _really _transpired between Kyoko and him, he was scolded by Yashiro for doing such a misleading thing.

Kyoko took this chance to flee, praying that no one saw the encounter she had with a popular model. She retreated to the back of the school, where no one was in sight.

"So, this is the reason why you didn't show up."

She recognized that voice. She spun to look at the owner of the voice and she was welcomed by cold grey eyes. There was only one person that she knew that had grey eyes.

Sho.

"So what are you two dating or something?"

She didn't dare to speak as she thought that it might have been an illusion.

They had bumped into each other several times already. He had never recognized her. What brought this on? He was saying something so she forced her overwhelmed brain to listen to what Sho was saying not wanting to be yelled at by him for being 'stupid.'

"…and so much for your number one. I dumped you and you go running to _him_. Is this your revenge? Sleeping with him to piss me off?" he said harshly.

Did he really think she was so low as to sell her own body for revenge?

Ai's words came back rushing into her head. _"Revenge is a waste of time. It hurts people and yourself."_

"Well, I can't say that I blame you…after all, you are your mother's daughter. Did you know why she left you at the ryoukan, Kyoko? It's because she slept with a man and got you by mistake…and that pin-headed model too, he'll leave you because he's got plenty of more beautiful and talented women lining up for him and you're just a plain whor…"

Everything became silent as the slap resonated in the air, making it look like time had stand still. Kyoko slapped him before he could finish that word…but it didn't matter because her heart still hurt.

This was the man she loves…no, _loved. _He didn't deserve her; he had proved that numerous times. Ai had already said she would hate it if Kyoko was still hung up on him. Kyoko had denied what Ai said at the time but she understood what Ai saw now, Kyoko couldn't feel that she wanted to take revenge for pure hatred, people only took revenge on other people was because they still _felt _for them.

It didn't matter if they hated that person, they would be _tied _to that person. They would still _matter_.

Kyoko didn't want to live like that again, a life ruled by another person. Everything she did would still for the sake of that person. All the skills she'd learn would be for taking revenge for Sho. Did she really want to waste her time like that?

Hadn't she already done that? What had she been doing these past few months since Sho dumped her? She had been blaming Sho for everything, planning her revenge… for this man in front of her.

She looked at him, _really _looked at him, gone were his childish face replaced by a stern looking jaw and a pair of steel colored eyes. He didn't love her, never cherished her and always put her down. Why should she be tied down by this sort of person? Didn't she deserve better?

Kyoko was looking at him, strangely. She was angry and then, she wasn't angry. She should be angry, she should hate him…but she had this strange look as if some kind of enlightenment had washed over her.

It was a whisper but Sho heard it clearly and was baffled by it. "I know what I want…"

"What? What are you talking about?"

She looked at him, most of her previous anger had faded, but the sting of her slap was still fresh.

"I don't want to take revenge on you anymore, Sho." She told him.

Did he hear that right? "What?"

"I won't pine after you anymore."

"Heh, Why? Because it's impossible? If you want you can…"

"Because you're not worth my time, Shoutaro…goodbye. And, I'm sorry..." With that, Kyoko left Sho alone.

The Sakura trees were blooming, looking much like the time when Sho had asked her to run away to Tokyo with him. This time, it was her telling him she was forgetting about him. How ironic. The Sakura trees in the back ground looked like the perfect setting for a confession or even a 'forever' love to occur. For her, she had just said goodbye to her past love.

It felt good when she said all of that to his face. Her body feels light and all fluffy inside.

It was time for a beginning.

She opened the door to the roof top. Her eyes were blinded for a second but when her eyes readjusted themselves. She was greeted by an expecting looking Ai who stood still, her feet was a few inches off the ground, both her hand were pocketed.

"I think I know your answer. I saw what you did…but I want to hear you say it." Ai told her, her lips slightly tilting upwards. She was holding back from smiling.

* * *

Sho felt dazed. What happened today? He met Ren Tsuruga and lost and argument to him and Kyoko…Was it because of what he said?

As he recalled his harsh words to her, he was immediately swallowed by guilt. Saena had always been a sore subject for Kyoko. Why had he even brought it up? He wasn't that stupid was he?

…

…He was. He hurt her but…she always comes back to him. Always had, always will. So, he shrugged off Kyoko's difference in attitude and the tugging on his heart that he had done something irrevocable, that he was going to be sorry for this and that he was _too late._

* * *

"Help me recover my heart, Ai."

* * *

**So this is Kyoko's decision. Reviews please and tell me if there's anything out of place.**

***yasha—demon. **


	4. Beautiful at Heart

**Now, quite some reviews are flowing in, most of what you don't understand will now be explained in this chapter. The reason I didn't show Ren and Kyoko's fight from the restaurant the other night was because I wanted to get Kyoko's decision about Ai's question out as soon as possible. In a few weeks I'm taking a break from fan fiction for an indefinite number of time. It can easily be a year so I was hoping to be able to finish this by then and write a few more chapters for my other story, called 'Precious'. It's a Fairytail fanfic. Give it a read if you're interested. Please, please, please, I need constructive criticism since I'm kinds slow at this.**

**Chapter 4: Beautiful at Heart.**

* * *

**Previously:**

"_Help me recover my heart, Ai."_

* * *

Ai laughed out loud, the tone; good-humored. "You! What do you think this is? It's not like some kind of disease."

"I…feel this way." Kyoko said feeling a little a little disheartened. Who wouldn't be after getting laughed at by the person you were relying for help, especially when that said person was the person you poured out your heart and soul to?

"Sorry…it's just…you're too much like me that I find it creepy." Ai told her amiably.

Kyoko sweat dropped. "Then, why are you laughing…?"

"Because it's so funny!" with that, she started laughing again.

Kyoko paled at the thought of this non-entity helping her. Would she really be alright, being in the care of someone who had a fair view of the world but with an equally puzzling a very twisted sense of humor?

…

She was _doomed._

"Right, I never did tell you what the best kind of revenge is there—"

"I don't want to know…I've decided to live my life honestly from now on, please take good care of me." Kyoko said, abruptly changing the subject and bowing perfectly.

Caught in the moment, Ai also bowed as regally as she could, after all she wasn't _that _familiar with Japanese etiquettes'. "Ah! Why am I going with the flow? You…don't change the subject." Ai pointed to Kyoko.

Ai sighed at the dejected looking Kyoko. She probably didn't want to hear it because she didn't trust herself that she was strong enough from going back on her decision. But, what she didn't know was the first day was always the toughest. It gets better with time until when there will be a time when she doesn't even think of him anymore. It would look like the responsibility falls down on her to make this clear with Kyoko. By deciding, that she was giving up on revenge and try to strive for life, her life had already changed. She wouldn't go back even if she _wanted _to.

"Kyoko, tell me what you think of Sho Fuwa?" Ai asked.

"…someone I loved, someone rotten." She replied.

Ai smiled. "Well said. It's like this, when you told him that he wasn't worth your time, how did you feel?"

"It was…" Kyoko recalled the feelings she had earlier; it was still fresh in her mind. Light? Fluffy? It made her want to fly and all warm and fuzzy inside—it was an indescribable feeling. "It was…magical."

"Exactly." Ai smiled. "And if I told you to remember how it felt when you were still bent on revenge on that Fuwa kid, how would you feel?"

Kyoko thought about it. She had always been alone so she didn't really notice it. Being alone made her feel cold, deep inside and made her feel lonely. She felt tired, always and always felt hungry, though for what she didn't know. "It was—horrible, I was…very lonely."

"If I told you to choose between the two feelings, which one do you prefer?" Ai talked to her, asking her the question as if she was a child. Her gentle smile urged Kyoko to answer truthfully.

"Of course, it was the first one…" Kyoko gasped. She really liked feeling this way, there was nothing that could make her go back to feel that horrible not if she had anything to say about it.

"You don't have to be afraid of going back to the way you were. It's like this, Kyoko. It doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman, everyone will want the better half of the stick. If you get something nicer than dried up bread, wouldn't you take the better one?" Ai said.

Kyoko saw Ai's point. It didn't make her selfish for wanting something better for herself—to feel good about herself. It was just human nature. It just made _her_ more human than anything else.

"It's personal self-preservation. God isn't cruel. He wouldn't give you challenges that you _can't _take on, and even if it's hard you persevere till the end because even the worst failures can be a blessings in disguise."

"…I think I get it now."

"Okay then, I want to get one more thing off of my chest. Don't ever forget your mistakes, even if they were stupid, they were _your _mistakes. They build your character, and make the person who you are today…and maybe no one had ever told you this before, but I'm telling you now, Kyoko. Who you are right now might not be perfect but no one's perfect but you're alright and good enough. When the time comes, you'll become even better, so you're perfect the way you are." Ai was tender with her words as she told Kyoko her thoughts. It was something new for Kyoko to think about. She liked the fact that she could use her brains to ponder on other thing than for Shoutaro and for studying—for herself.

Kyoko flushed red from happiness and she slowly nodded her head, shyly. Ai smiled at her, and gave her what seemed like a pat on the head, Kyoko wasn't sure but it felt like that, feeling a soft cold wind, ruffling her hair. Her eyes were starting to water, as a sudden thought struck her heart. No one had ever told her that it was good enough to just be 'Kyoko' because it was okay.

"Don't cry on me now, I don't have a handkerchief with me now." Ai reminded her, jokingly but all Kyoko could manage was a heart-warming smile as she burst into tears of joy. Ai stood there watching her.

"Do you need a moment to yourself?" Ai asked her.

She gave a quiet nod and then, Ai was gone the same way she appeared.

Kyoko didn't know how long she cried but her eyes were swollen and her throat hurt when she stopped crying. She felt tired. Crying was definitely tiring, now she remembered why she stopped crying all those years ago.

"Mo, what's wrong with you?"

Kyoko blinked her heavy eyes to the owner of the voice who seemed a bit irritated at her.

"Why are you crying?" the tall black haired girl asked her.

"…because I'm happy." She sniffed out an answer.

"…you're weird." After that statement, the girl, left.

A sudden thought strike her, she was a different girl now. She wanted friends right? So, what was she doing while an opportunity slips away?

"Wait!" Kyoko called out to her soon-to-be-best-friend.

The girl ignored her, still walking away. Afraid that she would die an old maid with no friends, (because even if she was bent on forgetting Sho she was still wary of love) her grudges sprung forth and wrapped themselves around Kyoko's soon-to-be-best-friend, effectively stopping the girl in her tracks. Kyoko praised her 'babies' and skipped towards her 'best friend.'

"Do you want to go eat ice cream with me?" Kyoko asked cheerfully.

A little freaked out that she suddenly couldn't move, the girl responded warily. "No."

Kyoko's shoulders slumped a little by the other girl's rejection. But her spirit immediately rose as her determination to make the girl her _very best-est friend._

"Then…my name is Kyoko Mogami, seventeen years old, and you're my best friend."

"What? No I'm not! I don't even know you."

"But…but…"

"I _don't _need something as worthless as a _best friend_. I'm fine on my own. Cheap friendships that can be sold off so easily, I don't need such shallow love." The girl sneered at Kyoko, thinking it will discourage the strange girl to leave her alone and make her stop the bizarre force at work that was paralyzing her body.

Instead, it had the opposite effect. Kyoko felt that a kindred spirit had landed just in front of her. This girl had the same thoughts as she had on love. They were _made _for each other. (Don't look at me like that. I want to show her how much she adores her best friend at first glance. Even, if it sounds so wrong.)

Kyoko latched herself onto the girl. "Best friends forever!"

"Mo, get off!" the girl screamed aloud, but Kyoko ignored it and squeezed into her hug. The girl felt like she was being choked by a python and she couldn't _breathe_.

When Kyoko realized that hugging her new-found friend was a big no-no, she let go and the girl thanked God for some or little common sense the strange whack-job had.

"You crazy whacko, there's no way I'll be your friend."

"But…but…Moko-san we're best friends!"

Moko-san? What kind of nickname is that? Kanae definitely had to get away from this girl—soon. "Then, what's my name?" Kanae asked.

When she, stilled not knowing the answer, Kanae took the chance to throw the girl off. "If you don't know then, how can we be friends?" with that, she escaped from the roof.

Kyoko stood there, blinking. _Of course, she'd get angry. You don't even know her name! _Kyoko silently admonished herself while rolling on the ground, cursing her stupidity, when a sudden thought struck her. _But…if I knew what her name was then…we _can_ be friends?_

Praising herself for her genius solution, she didn't notice, that Ai had come back.

"You look better, did something good happen?"

Startled, but eager to share her new experience, Kyoko exclaimed. "Yes! I made a friend today! ...but she got mad at me."

Ai quirked a questioning eye brow. All of that happened in the span of half an hour? "How did you two become friends?" Ai asked, quite curious how Kyoko pulled off the friendship.

"Oh, I was still crying after you left and then she asked me why I was crying. I told her it's because I was happy and then she said I was weird. Then, I asked her to go to eat ice cream with me, but she said no and said that she didn't need friends, and that love was shallow. I knew then and there that we were made for each other!" Kyoko finished excitedly.

Ai sweat dropped at Kyoko's…unique…train of thoughts. She wanted to befriend someone because they said that love was _shallow?_ Dear God, what had she got herself into? Was this girl even right in the head? But Ai had to tell Kyoko off gently as to not crush Kyoko's dreams of an 'everlasting friendship.'

She had hopeful glittering eyes. Who was cruel enough to let that hope crash and burn?

_Not me,_ Ai had thought as she thought of a way to let Kyoko off gently. "What did she say about being friends with you?"

Kyoko quickly deflated and became a hopeless pile of ashes when she recalled what Kanae said to her. "I didn't know her name…and she got mad and said that she won't be my best friend…"

"Hmm, no wonder she said that." Ai said knowingly.

"Why?" Kyoko asked her, curious.

Ai smiled. _She caught the bait…now to reel it in._

"Well…you've only met a few seconds before you threw yourself at her, didn't you?" At the guilty look on Kyoko's face, Ai knew she hit on the nail and continued. "Friendships are special and needs to be built on the basis of trust. If you force yourself on other people, do you think people will like it?"

Kyoko shook her head.

"If you know that much, then what were you doing?" Ai scolded her gently.

"…I'm so sorry."

"I'm not the one you've wronged. Go apologize to her and find out her name and ask her nicely if she wants to be your friend. This is proper etiquette of a princess, Kyoko."

"A princess?" her eyes shone with awe.

"Yup, a princess is always polite to everyone even to strangers, so, if you want to be friends you need to let them know you're interested. That's the rule for all relationships." Ai told her, factually as if it's common sense.

Kyoko made a small o with her mouth and giggled. "Do you think she'll be my friend?"

"Why don't you go and find out?"

Kyoko left but she spun quickly enough to manage another bow to Ai, sincerely thanking her.

Ai waved her off, and when the door slammed shut her smile dropped. _The aspect of Kyoko loving fairy tales was really similar to mine to the point where it scares me…hopefully; she won't do anything stupid, if her 'fairytale' falls apart like I did. _

Ai had recalled one thing about her death. It wasn't an _accident_, like what everyone thought. Ai sighed, thinking about this just made her depressed, she was better off finishing her 'research.' With that thought in mind, Ai drifted away to an unknown location.

* * *

"Moko-san!" Kyoko exclaimed as she spotted Kanae five meters away.

Kanae stiffened momentarily when she remembered watching the National Geographic channel once that in order to escape a python you had to move away quickly from them, don't let them feel threatened and don't let them near your vicinity. Realizing that the last part was important, Kanae quicken her steps. However, her small error in stopping was her downfall since Kyoko had the will of a thousand men and quickly rushed towards Kanae.

Thankfully, she had excellent reflexes and pulled her body to the side before Kyoko could capture her in another bone crushing embrace.

"Mo, what do you want now?" Kanae asked irritated at Kyoko's stalker-ish behavior.

Kyoko rubbed her face and for a moment Kanae thought that she looked a little _cute._ But she retracted that statement the moment Kyoko yelled 'Moko-san!' at the top of her lungs, attracting attention onto them.

"Mo! Can't you be quiet?"

"…oh, sorry, it's just that, I didn't catch your name…"

Kanae had just about had it with this girl; she had a horrible day and was not up to humoring this girl's twisted sense of friendship. Ready with a hurtful retort that was sure to drive even the most persistent idiots away, a shallow sincere-faked voice interrupted her.

"This is your best friend? I always knew you had peasant tastes…is she your model?"

Kanae frowned at Erika Koenji. The girl had always been persuading her to take pictures of her 'heavenly' figure. Kanae always refused and there was no problem because Erika Koenji was a spoilt princess and all it took was a new expensive toy to keep her occupied. Kanae always thanked God that Erika's father was rich. But, the girl had started to grow even more persistent ever since they entered high school last year.

"No she's not. I don't have one." Kanae answered her. She had never taken pictures of a model before thinking that they had unusual fake smiles. You had to praise them to get them to show their best smiles. For Kanae, she didn't want to work with individuals that didn't have a professional's attitude. Kanae was very strict with whom she worked with so, it made her choices of pictures limited. Most of her pictures were about animals, flowers, trees and any still objects that caught her attention. There hadn't been a human that had caught her eye with their _will_.

"Huh, it would seem as if your work is _lacking _as usual Kotonami." Kanae clenched her fists at this. Whenever Erika slandered her photos she couldn't talk back or defend her work because admittedly, Erika was _right._ This was why the President wouldn't let her graduate from the LoveMe section. It was because she couldn't _love _her models, that her pictures had no sense of depth even though they looked _good_. But that fact only made her angrier…earlier today, her spot as the main photographer in the school cultural had been taken away by a first-year. He was already a pro-photographer but she couldn't argue with the arrangement because Hiou Uesugi breathed _life _into all his pictures. When Kanae saw his work, she felt her goose bumps having goose bumps. The guy was good—he was _great_. Damn, there goes her chance of becoming a professional photographer.

"…Of course, if it had _me _in them…it would make your work at least _decent._" Erika insulted her. Kanae had been trying to fall in love with photography, to give _life_ in her pictures and she had been _improving_. No stupid princess was going to ruin her hard work by making the President frown on them ever again. But before she could conveniently tell Erika to go jump off a cliff, Kyoko interjected, loudly.

"Are you saying that Moko-san has no skills? I'll bet she can even make a plain nobody like me look _decent _as you put it! Moko-san is the best! There's nothing she can't do!"

For a moment—for a crazy moment, Kanae felt _loved_ by the whacko but when the words registered in her head. Kanae paled…if the whacko says something like that Erika was sure to take it as a challenge.

As expected, Erika fumed. "Well we'll see won't we? I'll have my servants to set up the stage for you to exhibit your _decent _photos of this _peasant_." With that, Erika turned on her heel and strutted to rant about how _great_ and _beautiful_ she is to the next group of people who didn't have brains that _liked _listening to her.

Kanae felt like she was duped. It was as if a black witch had offered to give her freedom (Insert Erika here) if she could make the duck look like a swan…(Insert the psycho here)

"You'll see, Moko-san is great and she'll win! She'll have the most beautiful pictures ever!" she heard the whacko accepting the challenge on her behalf.

She glared at Kyoko. "What do you think you're doing?" Kanae hissed. "I hate taking pictures of people…because I suck at it! How can I pull this off?"

"But…she was insulting you…"

"And you couldn't have shut your mouth? I'm hopeless at photographing people and now that girl is going to bug me about this if I don't come through!"

"Why is she pestering you so much?" Kyoko asked, genuinely curious.

"It's because she can't live without seeing me in some kind of misery! My photos were never good enough for her and she was always, always pitting that against me! If I didn't take her picture then, she'll make sure I couldn't even take pictures! She made it so I can't join the photography club in my old school! I don't even know what to do anymore!"

Kyoko looked at Kanae, without hope and bitterness in her eyes. "So…are you going to give up? ...if you run at this point, then she'll always stifle your dreams." Her friend was starting to sound like her...and she knew how horrible that path was. She wouldn't let Moko-san go through with that, Kyoko determined.

"What?"

"You came all the way to Tokyo, in order to be able to pursue your dream…isn't it a waste to throw it all away now?" at this, Kanae clenched her fists in a tight hold.

She sneered. "Hmph, it's not like it matters. In this world, there's nothing that can win over money. It's obvious that she's going to use her family name and money to buy into everyone's favor. I already know…"

Slap!

Kanae was stunned by surprise. The whacko had just hit her.

"Moko-san, is it true that you feel that there's nothing you can do? Do you really think that money can overwhelm talent? No matter how much someone wants it…talent can't be bought." Kyoko stated.

"True, no one can buy talent, but it can buy people's hearts." Kanae bit out bitterly.

"But nobody sold their hearts! Nobody!"

"There's no way that could happen. Everyone is like that! I can't win against money!"

"Moko-san…I may not know much about being a photographer or a model. But I do know this; talent _can _overwhelm people. If it's real talent, it will attract people's hearts because…you put your heart into it…people will be able to see your passion for it. Moko-san, have you ever fought back? Have you ever fought back even though you know you might not win against her money?"

_She was always on my tail_,

A memory flashed back inside Kanae's head.

"_**Eh? You're asking me to lie to Koenji-san asks about the high school you choose? I won't tell her anyway so, I don't have to lie."**_

"_**No please just lie to her anyway, sensei!" Kanae had insisted. She really wanted to stay away from Erika.**_

…_and she will try about anything to thwart me. I had to try hard so, she won't find out…_

_**Kanae acted like she wasn't interested in what the photography club was doing…**_

_**She woke up at three o'clock in the morning to mail her high school application, disguising herself so she wouldn't be recognized.**_

…_I never gave up on my dream _

"Moko-san…" Kyoko called out to her.

_My dreams…all this time…_

"…you really want to be a photographer right?"

_I keep holding back… suppressing my dreams…_

"Kh…Yes." Kanae answered softly as the realization slowly sunk in her head. She really _loves _photographing—because she never gave it up. Not once did the thought to abandon it cross her mind because she really wanted to take pictures.

"Well then, you should be prepared to fight back."

The words stung her. _Fight back?_

"Don't you feel irritated…being talked down like that?" Kyoko asked her.

_I always think about running away…maybe…this time I won't…_

"How? How do I fight back?" Kanae asked Kyoko, hope shining through her eyes. Kyoko paled feeling a little regretful for giving Kanae hope with careless words.

She hesitated. "By…by taking a picture…that can prove what she said wrong?" Kyoko suggested.

"How?" _If I fight back…will she leave me alone?_

"We…we should take a picture that is…something that can make a strong impression on others by first glance." Kyoko suggested, really sweating for her words now.

"But how?" Kanae asked her. Strong rays of hope were emitted by her and Kyoko felt blinded by the light. _If I fight back…will I be free…to pursue photography?_

"Uh, a theme…we need to decide on an interesting theme that can capture people's interest at first glance…I…uh, what do you think on…uh, inner beauty?"

"A woman?" a sudden inspiration struck Kanae, she had plenty of ideas on what she would try to capture.

"I got it."

* * *

Kanae readjusted the lighting stand to her liking for the umpteenth time until she was finally satisfied with her light settings. She went to prepare the other materials that would serve as the background in her photos.

"Um, Moko-san?" Kyoko was very happy that her friend had decided to ask for her help but she was at a lost on what she had to do. Kanae hadn't told her anything except for the address for the studio and to come at 4pm after school the next day. She said she needed at least a day to set up everything. Kyoko could see that as a photographer, Kanae was a very efficient one.

Kanae didn't avert her eyes from her task when she addressed Kyoko. "What is it?"

"Um, what can I do to help?"

"Just give me a minute here, I'm almost done." Kanae told her. With that, the awkward silence continued.

Kyoko decided to try another question. "When is the model coming?"

Kanae quirked an eyebrow, a little annoyed. "She's already here."

"Really, where is she? Is she changing right now?" Kyoko asked enthusiastically, she had never met a real live model before the only models she knew were two-dimensional. She'll bet that the model will be so pretty like a princess!

Kanae gave a long suffering sigh. "Kyoko…didn't Erika say it already? You're the model."

Kyoko turned to stone. "What?"

"You're my model Kyoko. Mo! Were you even listening?"

"But…but…I can't do it!" Kyoko cried. She, who had been called the world's ugliest woman, had no right to model!

"You're being idiotic as usual, most people jump at this chance ya' know!"

Kyoko turned to the owner of that voice. Sure enough, she saw the ghostly visage of Ai hovering above the room. "Where were you today?" Kyoko asked her ghostly 'therapist'.

"Around…so, can you tell me why you don't want to be a model? If it was me I'd be excited."

"That's not it!"

"Oh…sorry—I'm jealous sounds better?"

"That's not it either!"

"If you're going to tell me it's because of something that Fuwa kid said then; I'll give you a head's up, that I'll do something very unpleasant to you." Ai narrowed her chocolate brown eyes, making her look like a wild animal. Kyoko shivered from the implications of Ai's threat. It certainly worked better when you're dead—threatening people, I mean.

"…I…it's impossible." Kyoko said dejectedly.

"Nothing's impossible if you don't want it to be." Ai insisted. Really, when was this girl going to get it? She wasn't ugly, in fact, if Kyoko wasn't so dark and gloomy, she would probably have a string of suitor trying to catch her exotic amber eyes! Stupid Fuwa kid, you just increased my work load!

"Mo! Is this some kind of reality TV show? Who's there?" Kanae asked aloud, annoyed that she was being ignored when she had brought Kyoko here to do something else.

"Well, this is interesting. Hey, uh, what's her name?" Ai asked Kyoko. Kyoko's new friend was a little sensitive to the _other_ world.

"Moko-san." Kyoko answered dutifully.

"…your name is Moko-san?"

"Mo! That's not my name. Kyoko, tell your friend to come out, now." Kanae insisted, feeling a little creeped out talking to an invisible entity.

"Oh, now I get it! It's her nickname isn't it?" the invisible entity exclaimed.

"Yes, isn't it cute?" Kyoko asked the invisible entity.

"It's weird…but it can be cute if she makes that 'Mo!' sound outside…does she?"

"I don't know. Why did you follow me here?"

"...wanted to see your 'best friend' was it? Just thought we'd do a little project during your school holidays. When is it anyways?"

"Um, I'm not sure. I'll check it in a bit but…."

"Mo! Please tell me what's going on now!" Kanae interrupted them, feeling very annoyed that she was ignored for the second time and was talked about as if she wasn't there.

"I'm Ai. What's your name?"

"Kanae Kotonami, mind coming out now, Ai?" Kanae inquired, she had the right. This was _her _personal studio. No one had the right to walk in here without her invitation. Even, if the girl is Kyoko's friend.

"You keep saying that…but you can't see me can you?" the _hiding _girl asked Kanae.

"How can I see you, if you're hiding? Come out now!"

The invisible mysterious entity that identified itself as Ai, laughed as if she heard the funniest joke ever, which promptly insulted Kanae. Kanae didn't like it when people thought her stupid, no matter, she would correct that problem. "Kanae-san." She addressed Kanae. Then a cold breeze softly blew on her face and Kanae's blood turned to ice.

She turned to see that she had locked both door and windows, tightly shut. So…where was the breeze coming from?

"…I'm right in front of you." Her mind drew a blank and Kanae felt her legs give out underneath her and she collapsed on her knees, her hands supporting her fall but they were shaking.

"Darn, why is it people always faint when they know I'm a ghost? It's not that _bad _is it?"

"I'm not _fainting._" Kanae persisted.

She heard the-_the ghost_, laugh at her. "She's definitely a keeper. I like your friend, Kyoko. She's funny."

_I'm funny? …I'm terrified! What is wrong with…whatever it is that thing was?_

"Ai, don't tease her too much." Kyoko grumbled a little annoyed that Ai was having so much fun harassing her new friend. She didn't want Kanae to run away from her because of this.

"Aw, relax, princess, I won't do anything to your precious friend." Ai teased Kyoko, trying to hold the laughter in.

"You're having too much fun here." Kyoko said to the _ghost._ Kanae didn't believe in the supernatural but _this _was quickly changing her mind…or it could be Kyoko's friend trying to pull a prank on her.

… Yeah, the second one sounded like the more liable reasoning. Kanae preferred to go with that one, instead. Even though she knew it wasn't really...

"Do you need help standing up, Moko-san?" Kyoko offered her arm as leverage to pull Kanae up to her feet. Kanae nodded once, and let Kyoko help her slowly walk to a chair. Her knees were still weak from shock.

"Hey, so why are you modeling anyway?" the so called ghost asked.

By now, Kanae decided that no one was going to get a laugh at her expense so, she answered coolly. "It's because she challenged Erika Koenji on my behalf without agreement, so, now, if I don't fight back the girl is going to black mail me into taking her pictures. It's a part of a contract I never signed to but she had succeeded to write up a contract that should I ever defy her then, I would be forced to take her picture or be sued for everything that I own. I'm poor, (And I hate that fact!) so, I can't null it. It's stupid but people are stupid."

"And…this girl is so bad—why? Just take her picture, it won't kill you."

Kanae winced at the word 'kill' it might not kill her physically but she was already at the red line with her boss. One more screw up and she would never be able to debut. Her career might die from it."She's got some talent, I'll give her that much. But most of the jobs she's gotten so far were because of her money and family's influence. Her will doesn't interest me. I wouldn't be able to take any good photographs from her."

"Ah, so it's a matter of pride in your work is it? What's the theme for this photo shoot?" Ai said, knowingly.

"It's about a woman's inner beauty and strength. Erika said that even with my skills I couldn't take a single _decent_ photo as she puts it. The term of conditions were that I had to use Kyoko as my model because to Erika, Kyoko is the worst possible model. She thinks she'll win because she doesn't think someone plain can appeal to the crowd. I plan to prove her wrong." Kanae explained, determined to win against her _stalker_.

"Spoken like a true brat, this Erika. But, if it's Kyoko, you can definitely do it." Ai offered. Kanae looked skeptical about Ai's statement but the tone in her voice didn't leave room for argument. Kanae didn't bother to argue, she didn't know Kyoko as long as Ai did. At this thought, she felt a strange sensation as if her heart was being pricked.

"I…can't do it…" Kyoko interjected, but her voice was quiet.

"Mo! Why not? You're the one who got me into this mess!" Kanae argued. "And I can't use another model, Erika stated the conditions already; it _has _to be _you_!"

"Why me?" Kyoko moaned.

"Because you said that I can make someone as plain looking as you look _beautiful_, if I remembered correctly." Kanae said.

"I didn't mean it like that!" Kyoko retorted, her face coloring.

Ai was quiet during the whole exchanging arguments between Kanae and Kyoko. "All I've been hearing is what you can't do, Kyoko. Are you really that incapable and unreliable?" Ai asked Kyoko. Ai shocked the poor girl with the unexpected question.

Ai looked expectantly at her. "Answer me Kyoko."

"I…I…" Kyoko stammered.

"I don't want another 'I don't know' speech from you. Do you want to change Kyoko? Do you really? Because if that's true…this is not the attitude to do it, tell me something different this time Kyoko." Ai delivered her words with calmness but behind it, the meaning cut Kyoko's heart in two.

Ai was right…as always.

She had to take action…not whine and mope around complaining. Kyoko turned determined eyes towards Ai. The ghost smiled. "That's more like it. I never told you, did I?" Kyoko furrowed her eyebrows, confused but Ai continued. "The best revenge to take on Fuwa is to move on." Kyoko's eyes widen, disbelieving. "People, who can only hurt others, _hate _it when the people they try to bully don't respond. Fuwa doesn't think that you're capable that you'll forget him. You've only listened to him your entire life. So, prove him wrong."

"Oh." It was a simple word, only two lettered. But it was if someone hit the gong, her mind was full with future possibilities. Kyoko was giddy with excitement. She hadn't planned on revenge but…still, it felt good knowing that she would be able to give Sho a taste of his on medicine, even if it's on a much smaller plate.

"Let's start with this photo shoot. He said that you're unattractive? Then, _attract _people to you with this. Kanae-san captures the _essence _of a person, and Kyoko I can assure you, you have plenty of that. So, here's your homework, show it to the world and Fuwa, that you are _beautiful_. And in this sense, you have the inner strength that makes a woman attractive without make up. That's _inner beauty._ It's you."

Kyoko _smiled _and Ai was grinning ear to ear, happy with her speech. Kanae felt dazed, hearing Ai speak about a different sense of beauty overloaded her senses. She was still far away from bringing _life _into her photos but she was inspired with Ai's logic that she thought that maybe she could make this _work_.

Kanae explained the basics to Kyoko to show her the normal poses, but just pose the way she felt that she was most comfortable with. To help, Kanae had already prepared some music that can help Kyoko achieve the expressions that she wanted.

A guitar solo filled the air as the music started playing. (This song is my favorite and makes me feel sexy when I hear it, so shut up! It's also my first song fic, go easy on me okay? ;P)

Kyoko sucked in a breath and let the music guide her body. She willed herself to become the woman in the song that made the singer crazy about her…

_Like a gift from the heavens, it was easy to tell,_  
_It was love from above, that could save me from hell,_  
_She had a fire in her soul it was easy to see,_  
_how the devil himself could be pulled out of me,_  
_There were drums in the air as she started to dance,_  
_Every soul in the room keeping time with their hands,_  
_And we sang..._

Kanae couldn't believe it, Kyoko was posing…and she was good at it. Kyoko hugged her body with an arm one time and there was also her looking quite good as she swayed to the music.

_Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay,_  
_and the voices sang like the angels sings, and we sang..._  
_Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay,_  
_and we danced on into the night,_  
_Ay oh ay oh,_  
_Ay oh ay oh,_  
_and we danced on into the night,_

Kyoko gave a couple of high kicks and posed to let the wrap around her waist part and let the camera take a small look at her thighs. She had a mischievous teasing face on.

_Like a piece of the puzzle that falls into place,_  
_You could tell how we felt from the look on our faces,_  
_we were spinning in circles with the moon in our eyes,_  
_The room left them moving between you and I,_  
_We forgot where we were and we lost track of time,_  
_And we sang to the wind as we danced through the night,_  
_And we sang..._

_Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay,_  
_and the voices sang like the angels sing,_  
_and we're singing..._  
_Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay,_  
_And we danced on into the night,_  
_Ay oh ay oh,_  
_Ay oh ay oh,_  
_And we danced on into the night,_  
_Ay oh ay oh,_  
_Ay oh ay oh,_  
_And we danced on into the night,_

Kyoko was interacting with the camera as if she wanted to seduce it. Her expressions were purposely provoking and she smiled. The guitar solo made Kyoko spin around as if she was dancing. Her wrap lifted as if she was floating. Kanae had goose bumps from looking at her.

_Like a gift from the heavens, it was easy to tell,  
It was love from above, that could save me from hell,  
She had fire in her soul it was easy to see,  
how the devil himself could be pulled out of me,  
There were drums in the air as she started to dance,  
Every soul in the room keeping time with their hands,  
And we sang..._

Kyoko felt free and beautiful for the first time in her life and she reveled in the feeling. Oh, her heart soared and her body felt as if it was as light as a feather.

_Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay,_  
_and the voices bang like the angels sing,_  
_we're singing…_  
_Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay,_  
_And we danced on into the night,_  
_Ay oh ay oh,_  
_Ay oh ay oh,_  
_And we danced on into the night,_  
_(And the voices sang like the angels sing),_  
_Ay oh ay oh,_  
_Ay oh ay oh,_  
_And we danced on into the night,_  
_Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay,_  
_(Ay oh ay oh),_  
_Ay oh ay oh ay oh ay,_  
_(Ay oh ay oh),_  
_Singing ay oh ay oh ay oh ay,_  
_(Ay oh ay oh),_  
_And we danced on into the night…_

Kyoko struck the last pose; her amber eyes intense and peered through the camera lenses. She had both hands up. Her left hand was on her jaw and left cheek, all fingers slayed open. Her right hands grasped at her scalp, clenching her loose strands tightly in her fingers. Her left hip was put out a little and her right knee was slightly bent. Her sleeveless top had ridden up a little because of her spinning from earlier and the right shoulder of the top slipped down a fraction, exposing Kyoko's pale smooth skin.

The picture could only be described with one word…erotic. Kyoko looked, _seductive_, without the excessive make up that made women look like a whore_._ Kanae couldn't describe it; she just couldn't take her eyes off of Kyoko even for a second…she didn't want to.

"That's…okay." Kanae called out. Kyoko smiled bashfully, a little embarrassed thinking how she looked on camera.

She bit her lip. "So, how was it?" Kanae coughed and said that it was okay.

"No, it's still not good." Ai said.

Kyoko's shoulders slumped a little and Kanae felt indignant, wanting to argue on Kyoko's behalf. Ai stopped both of them. "It's because it's not intense enough, you want to make people unable to look at anything else but _you_. You were great, Kyoko, but we need at least one photo that can…how do I say this…bang! Explode. Capture people's attention. Show them a part of you that's private and not looking cheap while doing it."

At this, Kyoko's breathe hitched. She had the perfect thing to make what Ai said happen…but, this is a matter if she could pull it off without being too awkward or it will show in the photo.

"I have an idea." She told them softly. Both Kanae and Ai perked their ears for an explanation. But Kyoko offered them none and took off her top. Kanae sputtered, thinking the worst. She wasn't going to take pictures of a _nude_ Kyoko but Kyoko shut her mouth with a look. It said 'follow me' and Kanae felt obliged to comply. Ai stayed quiet and just watched Kyoko.

Kanae snapped pictures of Kyoko in clad her bra and wrapped skirt. Kyoko turned around suddenly and snapped her bra open. Kanae was surprised but still clicked pictures of Kyoko that she found the angle good. Slowly, Kyoko lifted her long veil of bright orange hair from her back…revealing a scar.

Kanae felt her eyes widen. She wasn't able to say anything…because the scar was...slightly disturbing. It ran from Kyoko's left hip jagging up across her spine and it ended behind the joining of her right shoulder, across her chest line. It was an ugly color of light brown and purple-ish tint. The color made the scar look worse than it actually is. Kyoko lifted her hair to rest on left shoulder. Kanae snapped a picture of that.

Slowly, Kyoko twisted her neck to look into the lenses. Her eyes were amber but they dulled a bit compared to her spirited look a few minutes ago. There were sadness and sorrow that lay behind those amber eyes that told the story of the scar. Kyoko…she looked _vulnerable_, as if she was about to cry but was holding back. Unconsciously, Kanae snapped Kyoko's weakness for the film to forever immortalize the girl.

"Beautiful." Ai complimented her and Kyoko felt her knees fall down, taking her along with her. Kanae, seeing this, rushed towards her. Kyoko was shivering, feeling exactly like her photos, vulnerable and weak.

Ai lingered at the background. For some reason, Kyoko thought she knew about her scar but…it would appear as if the ghost had just remembered something painful, instead.

"Hey, you okay?" Kanae asked, concerned with her since she collapse. Kyoko managed a weak self-conscious smile.

"I'm fine."

* * *

**A bit longer than usual but I couldn't let go of the idea Kyoko having a scar on her back. If you guys must know, that's the reason why this story is called ScarsCry. I'm sorry if I couldn't portray the photographing scenes that good, and for the lack of information on photography. I have shallow knowledge on it. Please review and give me some awesome constructive criticism. **


	5. Control

**Chapter 5: Control.**

* * *

The golden rays of sun filtered through the light white curtains. A small breeze blew and the sky was a blue as ever. It seemed the perfect day for playing outside or lazing around comfortably inside.

"Kyoko, you're fine." Kanae coaxed the girl out from hiding.

"But…but it's indecent!" Kyoko protested vehemently.

"No, it's not." Ai said. "You're still covered."

Kyoko frowned, her face red from embarrassment. Kyoko was a proper girl with proper manners. Even if they insisted that, she was fine. Gone were her, sleeveless blue top, black shorts and navy wrap. She had exchanged them for an oversized button down white shirt, albeit rather _forced. _The shirt reached till her thighs ending slightly on top of her knees. It covered her modestly but…she was still half-dressed. Kyoko pulled on her shirt but it didn't reach more than her knee.

The other girls were quiet till Ai pointed out another fact to Kyoko. "Your chest's showing."

Immediately, Kyoko's reaction was to let go the edge of the shirt and turned bright red.

Ai squealed, totally having a fan-girl moment. (Well, at least Ai is a _girl_, unlike someone else we know.) "Cuteness!" Kanae had to agree with the mysterious voice inwardly. Seeing Kyoko so flustered just makes one want to tease her some more…

Kanae gasped. What did she just think? No, back to work! "Well, we got the 'dark' part down. Now, we'll do the lighter counterpart." Kanae announced.

"Excuse me, sensei. What does that mean, exactly?" Kyoko raised her arm, asking.

A chart appeared behind Kanae and she did a quick magic wardrobe change into a stern looking glasses teacher. The chart showed percentages and what not. "A woman has two distinctive charms. The first one, _a seductress_, a popular trait and weapon but the cute and innocent type is also just as popular. I want to express on that. It's still day out so I want a quick bed wakeup look before Kyoko change again and we continue outside."

"Um, what do I do, Moko-san?" Kyoko asked timidly.

"Just act natural, go lie down, and act as if you had just woken up." Kanae instructed. Kyoko followed each instruction with perfection except…

"Kyoko, why am I looking at a statue?" Kanae admonished Kyoko. Ai who was giggling at the back ground was certainly not helping. Kyoko lay on the ground stiff and unmoving; her face was frozen with a creepy smile. Everything about Kyoko's posture screamed _unnatural_, which was not what Kanae had envisioned for her shoot.

"Mo! Kyoko what are you doing? You're too stiff; I can't take pictures of this!"

"…sorry…"

"Mo I'm going to find the next outfit for the next shoot, Ai you fix this idiot from freezing up like Buddha statue before I finish." With that, a frustrated Kanae exited the small studio, leaving Kyoko alone with the ghost apparition.

"Hmm, she's worried…in her own strange way." Ai commented after looking at the door for quite some time. Kyoko was scrunched up into a ball; her arms were crossing over her head as she hugged her legs together. Ai tilted her head a little. _If she just squeezed bit more…she'll be a perfect ball…_

"Ball princess; why are you showing us such a creepy grin today?" Ai asked trying to lighten up the mood.

No response.

"If you don't talk to me in five seconds…I'll do something really embarrassing." Ai warned the curled up girl.

Silence; there was still no response.

"You know...once I kissed a lizard."

No response.

"After that, I proposed to it and belly-danced in front the Queen of England." (Sorry, I mean no disrespect but since England is a bit proper...I think, I thought it would be funny.)

Silence and Ai swore she heard an orchestra of crickets singing in the background, much to her displeasure.

Ai did something equivalent to taking a deep breath. "Kyah! Sho Fuwa is peeping at your _underwear_!"

At this, Kyoko visibly panicked. She flustered and at the same time became very defensive hearing Sho's name. She ran and hid herself behind the white curtain but to no avail it was _transparent _and hid _nothing_. What was she supposed to do…?

Ai was _laughing_. Hard.

This made Kyoko wonder, what she found so amusing when her former arch enemy was in the same room trying to take a peek at her…_undergarments_.

When it struck her—Ai just _loves _teasing her. And since when did Sho decided that trespassing was okay, especially if it was to see _her_?

…

Indeed, there was no Sho Fuwa but there was a laughing Ai that was swearing she was _dying _from laughter. Oh, she'll give the ghost something to _really _die for. Cue in the mini Kyoko-grudges. (Hey, she might not want vengeance on Sho anymore but the grudges are here to stay.)

The grudges put up a good fight but Ai just flicked them away. Do you want to know how? It's very simple actually. Ai _sang_.

Oh, but it's not an ordinary song that was sung. It was a _love song._ She sang '_Love _you like a _love song_,' by Selena Gomez, 'L-O-V-E' by Nat Cole King and every cheesy love song the ghost could think off as well as, beautiful sappy love stories.

The grudges sizzled from the sappiness and gooeyness of the heartwarming emotion. Some of them willingly dug graves for themselves rather than hear another second of the _torture._ Kyoko shivered from horror. Ai definitely was a force to be reckoned with. She did her best to salvage as many grudges she could find and protect them. Most ran back to her crying 'Mama' like little toddlers who were scared after watching 'Chucky' the living, serial-killer doll.

_Remind me never to make her mad._

Ai grinned, a self-satisfied smile. "You're a real sadist." Kyoko told her, grudgingly.

"Why, I'm flattered!" Ai clasped her palms together in a too sugary mocking attitude.

"It isn't a compliment." Kyoko told her blandly.

"Well, too bad but I'm taking it as one and there's nothing you can do to stop me." Kyoko huffed at Ai's irrational and childish behavior. Really, the ghost was childish to the point where Kyoko was all up for pushing the apparition off a building if it actually worked in shutting up the girl for good. "How did you get that scar?"

Kyoko, being too upset took a few seconds later for the question to actually sink in and that Ai had asked her regarding her past. Kyoko looked back at her, shell-shocked. Ai was calm as always, as if she had just asked Kyoko about the weather.

Kyoko didn't bother fighting. The ghost would surely find a way to get the truth out of her and Kyoko didn't feel particularly feisty today so, she answered simply. "I fell."

Ai regarded her disbelieving. "That must have been quite the fall." Ai retorted sarcastically.

"Yeah…I was hiking up the mountain with my class…I didn't listen to the teacher's orders and got separated from my group. Then…it got dark and I encountered a man alone. He had yellow teeth and wild eyes. I…didn't like the way he looked…at me. He sort of lunged after me and…I struggled and kicked him. He got angry…then, he pushed me but…there was a slope and…I fell." Kyoko explained, reminisce of that night evident on her face. It was a haunted expression. "When he pushed me…I got scared and…I pulled him with me…he died…cushioning most of my fall…" Kyoko continued and then, retreated into her shell. "The doctor said I was lucky the fall didn't paralyze me."

Ai was not expecting that. And it made her feel guilty for her earlier remark. Kyoko didn't deserve that. "Hey, you okay?" Ai asked the turtle girl. When, Kyoko didn't reply. Ai continued anyway. "I'm sorry…for what I said. That…wasn't very fair of me…"

"…it doesn't matter. No one knows anyway, not about the scar or about _anything_." Kyoko told her.

"Not even Fuwa?" Ai asked. The boy was her childhood friend and he was her first love. Surely, she would have confided in him. They lived together for a long time; he couldn't have been so stupid that he never noticed Kyoko wrapped up in bandages! It simply wasn't done. Even the most unobservant people would notice if their housemate suddenly had a scar like Kyoko's. The wound from such a fall would have taken a long enough time to heal.

Kyoko shook her head. "He doesn't know…it happened when I lived with my mother…" at this, Ai visibly stiffened. So, _someone _did know...

"Sorry…for asking…"

"It's alright; most people would have reacted the same way. But it's nice to see that you asking than making your own assumptions." Kyoko offered.

"So…we're cool?" Ai asked her. Kyoko raised a brow at this, but nodded. "If you promise never to do _that_ ever again then consider it done." Kyoko said, referring to Ai's rather unorthodox method of cheering her up.

Ai's eyes lit up in an understanding light and smiled. "I promise not to use the mention of Sho Fuwa's name to tease Kyoko Mogami." She pleaded like a girl scout. Kyoko sighed. That was directly wayward. Ai promised not to tease her using Shoutaro but she didn't say she promised to completely stop teasing her, or pranking her somehow.

"Okay, that's good enough for now." Kyoko accepted Ai's verbal vow and sighed again. Sometimes, she felt really old when she spoke to Ai. The ghost managed to suck her energy by acting childishly.

"So, why are you all stiff earlier, anyway?"

"I don't know…it's like suddenly I realized that she was taking _my _pictures for other people to see. It's disturbing to know to that so many people will be looking at me." Kyoko confessed.

"Hmm…if that's the case, then forget about the whole thing." Ai said.

"What?"

"I mean…stop caring about what other people will say. They're just other people, they don't know you." When Kyoko looked at her like she was crazy, Ai opted to elaborate on her point. She really had to remember that not everyone could read her thoughts as well as her mother. Her mother would have been good for Kyoko. She was good at seeing what other people usually missed out. When Ai felt that familiar prickling sensation she stopped reminiscing about her mother before the moisture in her eyes ran down. She focused on Kyoko instead and chose her mother's wise words. "Just focus on the end result of this photo shoot rather than on what people will say about you. They always have to say _something-_good or bad. You can't change what people think but you _can _change yourself. I'll bet they won't even recognize you because you look totally different from before." Ai explained.

"Oh." That's right. People only knew evil dark corner girl. They didn't know Kyoko Mogami and never thought that she would do something as glamorous as modeling, even if it's a one-time thing. With that, Kyoko earlier inhibitions disappeared in a blink of an eye.

"Okay, Kanae—problem solved! You can come out now!" Ai declared and the door suddenly opened, revealing Kanae who stumbled forward by surprise.

Kyoko blinked confusingly at Kanae when she saw Kanae blushing and muttering she realized that Moko-san had heard everything that she had told to Ai.

…

Oh.

This is really awkward.

Kanae fidgeted, well not really, but she was if you looked upon a closer inspection. "Sorry." She apologized to Kyoko for eavesdropping.

Kyoko smiled. Moko-san only did so because she was slightly interested in her right? Then, that means her dreams of making friends would come true soon enough. "It's okay!" Kyoko reassured her.

Wanting to dispel the rest of the awkward fog, Ai exclaimed loudly. "Hey, I just thought of something absolutely brilliant!" with that she urged them both to follow her.

They followed, both equally confused, followed the hyper grinning ghost. Well, it's actually Kyoko following Ai because she could see the apparition and Kanae followed Kyoko because she couldn't. However, the various mumbling 'I'm a genius' and other unnecessary chatter let Kanae know where she was hovering around. Kanae just accepted the fact she was talking to a ghost…it's too late to do anything about it anyway.

Through the studio, they passed and Ai took them higher up in the complex by a lift. Until, they reached the highest floor…but it was dark. No one was living there. Ai explained it was because it was undergoing a makeover since; the rest of the building had already done so. When they asked how she knew such a thing, she gave them a mischievous smile and said, "I'm resourceful." She took them, to a storage room and told them to pull out…a teddy bear.

"You brought us out here for a teddy bear! We're trespassing for something so stupid?" Kanae yelled.

"It's not stupid!" Ai retorted. "It's cute! And, it'll increase Kyoko's moe factor." Ai reasoned. Kanae and Kyoko slumped forward (anime-style) from the honest but lame excuse from the ghost.

"Who's responsible for your weird common sense?" Kanae demanded.

"It's not weird." Ai protested, pouting. "My _Cheri_, said it's perfectly cute for a girl to wake up with a stuff animal." Ai defended her actions as in her eyes, it would benefit them.

"Well it's not! People will laugh!" Kanae rebutted her reason for thinking the teddy bear was not usable for her photos.

"Why did your Auntie Cheri say that?" Kyoko asked. With it, the air around them froze. Awkwardness spelled in the air and they didn't know what to say.

"Who's Auntie Cheri?" Ai asked Kyoko.

"Huh? I don't know but you said…" Kyoko answered honestly but she was cut off by Ai bursting into fits of laughter and Kanae pace palming at Kyoko's remark. She thought _Cheri_ was a woman. Kanae looked over to Ai to see she was still laughing, which meant _she _would have to explain the misunderstanding to Kyoko.

"Kyoko." Kanae addressed her. Kyoko turned her confused amber eyes to her friend in hope of a proper explanation why the ghost was laughing yet again. "_Cheri _is not an auntie."

"But Ai said…" Kyoko interrupted.

"_Cheri _is in French. It means darling. Ai was talking about her boyfriend." Kanae said, grudgingly.

"No, no, I don't do the whole boyfriend girlfriend business. You break up and avoid each other after that. No fun at all! He was my honey! Sheesh, at least ask me for conformation." Ai grumbled.

As Kanae and Ai got into a heated argument about family and boyfriends, Kyoko went to pick up the intended teddy bear Ai had designated them to. The teddy bear looked worn out and Kyoko wondered how long it had been since the last time it was held by its previous owner.

_How lonely_, Kyoko thought to it, after noting the musky smell and dust it had accumulated between the years. The teddy bear had a brown furry coat that was now slightly black from the dust. One of its eyes were gone and the stuffing inside were almost gone. Kyoko frowned. Then, she listed all the things she needed to get to fix the teddy bear before it was presentable to a camera. Kyoko thought it must have been very uncomfortable for the little teddy to be stuffed in the closet all this time.

Kanae and Ai's argument was cut short as Kyoko let out a small whimper. They both turned around to make sure she wasn't hurt when they saw her crying clutching tightly to the teddy bear. "Poor Mister Teddy." She said to them. Both of them dropped to the ground (anime style) and both yelled simultaneously. "Why are you crying?"

"Because it's so sad." She replied. Ai sighed and Kanae groaned to no one in particular.

"Whatever. It's too late now to resume the shoot. I only booked the studio today since I thought I could finish everything by today since it isn't a big collection." Kanae offered. Then, she stilled. "Kyoko, how can you go out looking like that?" Kanae asked, outraged by her carelessness.

Kyoko was surprised with Kanae's response looked down on herself and sure enough she was still in the button-down shirt…

_What's wrong with…?_ But she immediately stopped that train of thought. She was clad in only an oversized shirt that was too big for her and her underwear. What was she thinking, going out dressing like this?

Kanae sighed, annoyed by the turn of events. "You." She pointed at Kyoko. "Stay here till I bring back your clothes." She instructed, "And you." She pointed to the invisible air. "Keep her out of trouble."

"Okay, boss." Ai saluted Moko-san, Kyoko saw, but the ghost was behind Kanae. Kanae turned red from embarrassment at her mistake at _where _she talked to and stalked off. It wasn't even ten minutes since Kanae left when Kyoko heard soft rustling and hushed whispers. She heard footsteps before she heard a moan. She hid herself in the store room and turned to look at her ghostly companion—who had somehow turned red from the roots of her hair to the tips of her toes. What was wrong?

"Hey, what's wrong?" Kyoko whispered to her, a little worried for the ghost. Ghosts were dead and didn't catch fevers so, why was the older looking girl looked so flushed?

Ai's irises widen a considerable fraction before she clamped her mouth shut and turned even redder if that was possible, all the while mumbling to herself. This confused Kyoko even greater because the moans and panting grew even louder. She heard a woman and a man's voice talking in hushed tones and then they both screamed. Thinking, that someone was hurt, Kyoko turned to knob to go help them when Ai screamed at the top of her lungs to stop. But the damage was already done and the loud creaking knob had warned the couple that there was someone else in the vicinity. Kyoko panicked at the thought someone finding her in this state. She scrambled to hide herself in the storage room even further to avoid detection but the room was small enough as it is. There was no way she could hide herself away.

As she prayed for help, God was listening and gave her what she _needed_. A small clutch clicked at Kyoko's touch and when she pushed it, an exit gave way. The small hole swallowed Kyoko; Ai didn't notice it and went to distract the couple. After a few haunting _'ooohs' _and _'booos' _the couple immediately retreated to safety and when Ai went to look for the amber-eyed girl…she was gone.

Kyoko followed the passage way (_Hurray for secret passages!_) and found it easier to move when she was walking on all fours. Her heart pounded in her ears at the darkness and at the thought that she would be discovered if she didn't move. As she crawled out of the dark passage she sighed in relief.

But the feeling only lasted when she locked eyes with surprised brown eyes. Oh no, she was caught!

* * *

**-The end.-**

* * *

**(Heh, just messing with you guys.)**

**But we will take a momentary break, because it's suspense. I just want to ask you guys about what you think will happen next.**

**Who found her? **

**Is it Shoutaro? **

**Or…her father?**

* * *

…

…

…

"Nice panda's." the man in front of her commented. Kyoko blinked cool amber eyes until the meaning of the man's words registered in her brain.

"Gyahhh!" she shrieked in horror, pulling her shirt to cover her rather exposed panties. Why did she choose today of all days to wear her favorite underwear?

"Mind telling me why you're sneaking into my place?" he asked her and she stiffened. She didn't know what to reply so; she sat there gaping at him, wide-eyed. "If you don't answer, I'm calling security." He threatened her. He took the phone from the receiver as his fingers hovered over the numbered buttons.

"No!" she jumped to stop him but he easily caught her and pressed her to the nearest flat surface. She struggled uselessly as the man was stronger than her. A sense of dread filled her and as if he could see it in her eyes, he released her and stood away from her. "Why are you crawling through an air vent into my place?"

Kyoko stuttered, shaken to be discovered by the man she least wanted to see. "I…I'm sorry! It…there were noises and…she said no…and then I found a hole…monkey!…" she tried to explain it with the best of her abilities, but she showed up with the worst circumstances that came to mind so, that wasn't working very well. Ren raised a curious brow to how a monkey fit into her story but...

~Growls~

He blinked at the sound as Kyoko's face turned red resembling a ripe tomato. She didn't eat lunch and now she was paying the price of humiliation in front of her senpai. Ren's gentleman's side took over and ordered Kyoko to take a bath and then, come to the kitchen to eat. Kyoko nodded dumbly and then he left.

_Wait…did he say take a __**bath**__? I can't! _Kyoko argued that it was indecent for a young girl such as herself to be taking baths at a man's house. But, proper girls didn't flash their panties at their seniors, even if it was unintentional. He didn't even react to her…

Kyoko gasped. Why was she thinking that? She should be grateful that she had such a reliable senpai that wasn't a pervert and was nice enough to let her shower at his home after all the disrespectful things she had said and done. Kyoko pushed away the negative thoughts and slid into the heavenly hot shower and cleaned herself thoroughly.

She stepped out of the shower methodically, and then, blinked at the new set of clothes left on the bed, folded. She smiled in appreciation at her senpai's thoughtfulness and changed into the clothes that were laid out for her.

The jersey was a bit too big for her and it kept sliding off one shoulder. Thankfully, the tank top was better but again it proved to be too big for her when the shirt reached the middle of her thighs. The trousers were better because they were draw strings Kyoko could pull, adjusting it to her tiny waist. But when she put them on, they were too long for her feet so she gave up on them and folded them neatly at a corner of the bed. The shirt were big enough to cover her so, she didn't worry about it much. It wasn't like her chastity was in danger with her senpai right? Overall, the clothes looked ugly on Kyoko. That's because they seemed to swallow her entire frame and emphasized on the fact that she was tiny.

She stepped out to greet her senpai, self-consciously. But she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw what he held in his hands.

Store-bought onigiri*

The enemy of all healthy eating. Kyoko was furious to see it first-hand, the attitude of people who don't care for a nutritionist and a well-balanced diet. Look at that 'I'm satisfied' shoulder slump and that, 'I don't care for my health' posture including a leg crossing over the other one. Oh, Kyoko Mogami was going to set him straight. Right now, she would tell him off about the dangers he was taking leading this sort of lifestyle.

Forgetting her previous self-consciousness, Kyoko marched straight for the man and snatched the onigiri he was eating. She asked him. "What are you doing?" with a glare.

Ren was a bit thrown off by the girl and offended so, he replied impishly. "I'm eating…but you're holding my dinner so I think you already know." Kyoko's eyes narrowed at the word 'dinner.'

She dumped the onigiri into a trash can and Ren protested but she gave him another cold glare and proceeded to raid his kitchen. Ren watched the girl moving about his kitchen space with detached eyes.

_She was crazy._

_She was raiding his kitchen right after she threw his dinner away._

_She was upset that he liked to eat store-bought onigiri._

_She was so…pretty…_

A loud clatter brought him out of his thoughts and he frowned at his last thought. Something was definitely _wrong _with him. He should really see a doctor…right now. Oh, she's saying something.

"Senpai, why isn't there any food here?" she asked him.

"Um, because I didn't buy anything?" he answered, uncertain to why her eyes seemed to burn when he answered her that.

"Where's the nearest grocery shop?" she heard her ask him and he blinked.

"Downstairs, the complex has its own grocery shop and a small mall for the residents." He told her but seeing her eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets lead him to think that maybe he should have left out the part about the mall. She seemed to be the stereo type of a simple girl with no mind to how she should wear herself.

"I'll be back in a bit." She told him and left.

_Just like that?_

She was like a tornado. You never know what she would do next. He contemplated on following her but he shrugged and went to work on cleaning his camera lenses, instead. She had already said she would be back and he was still a little annoyed with her so whatever.

She came back thirty minutes later with both hands occupied with plastic bags. What was she doing? She told him curtly that she will use, (Not would like to but **will use**), his kitchen, insisting. He let her do whatever it was that she wanted and she took out chopping board and a kitchen knife. He watched her cut the vegetables, expertly like a professional and toss them around in the pan. She worked efficiently and with vigor. Ren found himself watching her with fondness and fascination as she cooked.

Her movements were small but confident with their task at hand. Her eyes were gleaming with determination and knowledge at what she was doing. Her hair was plastered to her face because she had just taken a bath and was working up a good sweat right now. He noted the loose pony tail she had put her hair in, there were loose strands that escaped her hair tie. Decidedly, the soft bouncing tuffs of hair that would grow to become part of her longer strands, were _enticing._ He wanted to bite them and…

She distracted him from completing his thoughts as she started to roll on the jersey's sleeves. She drew his eyes to her arms. They were long but short if they were to compare to his. His eyes travelled down, to her wrists. _So slender, _he thought. He could probably take both of them with only one fist. Her nails were cut and clean. There wasn't an ink that stained her finger nails like normal girls her age. But she was Japanese, not American so, maybe all of them had clear nails like her.

His old clothes were too big on her. They swallowed her frame, hiding her curves and taunted him endlessly to find out for himself. He gulped. This is bad, she was arousing him without knowing it. She was _innocent_ so, he had to control himself.

_**Control**__. _But he couldn't help his eyes that took note of how _his _jersey fit her and accentuated of how _small _she was. Kuon wanted to see if he could _break _her. Blinking at his now darker thoughts, Ren shut his eyes to compose himself and to slip his mask on again.

_**Control.**_ She had small feet and a tiny waist. She was like a _fairy _to him—small, cute and _delicate_. A fairy in _his _clothes.

_**Control. **_He snarled to himself. He could feel the strands of his last control slipping away, feel Kuon surfacing. She had smooth skin. Her leg's were tiny...small...like a...

_Mine._

Ren was slightly disturbed at how _possessive_ Kuon sounded when he was addressing his kouhai and it worried Ren because if Kuon was already fighting him to claim her then, at some bases he was already affected by the girl to want her too. That meant, he was going to have difficulties in the future, because he would also struggle to control Kuon and his feelings for her. Kuon, was never possessive over any girl, he had his pick of who to fuck but never, had he been the one actively seeking for a willing partner. This was becoming _really _bad _quickly_.

Ren was leaning on the counter top, facing the kitchen and sucked in a deep breath. He had to get away from her.

"Tsuruga senpai?" he looked at her. It was a big mistake. She was biting on those pair of luscious pink, _kissable_…

_**Control!**_ He demanded his body to comply with his orders. Though, it was beginning to increase his work load when she continued to _suck_ and _chew _on her lower lip.

He should go to see a doctor the first thing in the morning. This kind of _stress_ wasn't healthy for anyone, especially a male like him.

"Yes, Mogami-san?" he answered her coolly, different to how his innards was boiling at the sight of her.

"Do you like…chicken?" she asked him and all his stress flew away as her question hit him like train.

"Yes…" she smiled at his reply and turned away to fetch plates for them both. _That was…unexpected._

But Ren was thankful for the girl's unexpected comment that managed him to latch onto his fine slips of control and mask, allowing him to shut Kuon to his cage deep in his mind.

However, now he had a problem. How was he going to kick her out without raising suspicions and still keep his control and Kuon in check?

"Mogami-san." He called. She turned to smile at his direction. "You disappeared the other day. What happened?" when she stiffened visibly. Ren knew that it was a sensitive subject. Not one to look a gift horse at the mouth. He took his chance to drive her away. But before he could say anything, she mesmerized him with one look.

"I'm..." She started but she held back her words as there was an unreadable expression on her face, she turned to him and smiled her brightest genuine smile at him. It completely caught Ren off guard.

_What did that mean? _But Ren dared not to ask because he didn't think he'd like the answer, his gut instinct told him.

He didn't speak even when they were seated. She served him a plate of her cooking. He recognized the dish, it was Oyakodon*. She was amazing, he thought as the serving looked clean and looked as if a professional chef had cooked it. The taste was even better. He couldn't find anything to criticize about it.

"Uh, I'm sorry…" Kyoko said to him. He was surprised by her unexpected apology. Why was she apologizing? Did she do something wrong?

"For what?" he asked her for confirmation.

She blushed and answered him with another question. "You don't remember?" when he shook his head, she worried her lip with her teeth as she struggled with her words while Ren watched her yet _again_.

"For what I said…it was very presumptuous of me to say that to a senpai. I'm sorry." She bowed to him.

Oh. He blinked at her explanation. She was talking about their little accident at a restaurant from before. He cleared his throat, feeling a little awkward now that she decide to apologize for something he had already forgot after all, he had taken her forced apology from their last encounter as her official apology. He guessed she didn't feel that way.

* * *

_"Good evening Kyoko-san are you feeling better now?" he asked her with a faked smile, acting as if there was nothing wrong._

_"I'm __fine __thank you, how surprising to see you here. I'm sorry but I accidently eavesdropped on your conversation with your friend. A __lunatic, who is__?" Kyoko asked sweetly with an equally fake semblance of a sweet smile, though her word and tone didn't match her appearance at all._

"_No one special but it's very rude to eavesdrop on someone's conversation Mogami-san. I hope you don't make a habit out of it." He admonished her with a fake smile. As if sensing his smile was a fake, her face turned even more sour as she spoke to him._

"_Alright then, I won't make it a habit but really, senpai you should learn manners when talking about a girl, even if she isn't present." Kyoko said, bitingly. _

"_Are you insinuating something, Mogami-san?" he asked with an innocent tilt of his head._

"_No, of course not…I would never dream to insinuate that my senpai is nothing but __**perfect**__ otherwise the world might end…because the decline of your __**ego**__, senpai." Kyoko retorted in her too sweet voice but her words were laced with venom and Ren felt the impact of those words._

_Thanks for nothing, Yuki. He thought in his head. This wasn't what he had in mind when he said those words. He didn't think she'd be __**here **__of all places and at the exact time as he was there, saying those words. It was too perfect to be a coincidence but here they were. He was being misunderstood, but it was his fault…_

"_Hahaha, you are very funny Mogami-san. I __**almost **__thought that you were insulting me." He replied, sarcasm evident in his tone. _

_Both of them glared at each other, eliciting a shudder from everyone in the same room as them. The temperature in the room dropped a few degrees as if there was a cold blizzard that raged between the two of them. Neither wanted to lose nor did they want to back down. _

_Suddenly, a loud voice boomed throughout the room and broke their icy gazes. "If you can't learn to respect other people then, I suggest taking your argument outside. Kyoko, take tonight off." Taisho said to her, a disapproving light in his eyes._

_Not wanting to be a disappointment, Kyoko protested. "But…"_

_The Taisho cut her off. "As a waitress, you do not pick fight with our customers, Kyoko. __**Take tonight off.**__" His tone left no room for argument and Ren felt bad for her. He didn't mean to get her in trouble with her boss. When he tried to defend her, Sakaki, (a.k.a Taisho) curtly told him to get out and to only come back when he learnt __**proper**__ mannerism when talking to other people. _

_Shocked, he followed the invitation to kick himself out of the establishment. His ego took a massive hit that day and he grudgingly had to admit to his faults. His mask was still imperfect, it still leaked out his emotions for those with sharp eyes. But while, he was in contemplation, Yukihito was busy apologizing to the Taisho, Kyoko came and they argued some more. It came to a point where he must have hit a nerve when she whipped out her middle to him and ran away._

_When his friend came out, scolding him and nagging like an old obba-san* which he was in no mood to tolerate after Kyoko's very vulgar gesture, he told Yukihito what he thought of his lectures. His friend offended proceeded to sulk and not talk to him for the rest of the week. Really, Yukihito could be such a baby sometimes._

* * *

"It's fine. I wasn't very pleasant to you either." Ren brushed off her apology. For some reason, Ren felt less hostile against the girl after she apologized to him. There was an air of comfortable acquaintance between the two of them.

Kyoko frowned but didn't argue with him on the matter. She didn't want to start fighting with him again."Then; I should say thank you." Kyoko said to him. "For helping to take me to the infirmary and for…this." _This_, she meant was for the clothes and shower, he guessed.

"That reminds me—why were you in that air vent anyway?" Ren asked her.

"Oh…that? Um, I can't say?" Kyoko stammered, nervousness showing. Ren frowned.

"What were you doing that was so bad that you can't tell me?"

"You wouldn't believe me anyway…" Kyoko muttered under her breath but unfortunately for her Ren heard every word.

"Try me." And with that statement out, his left hand clasped his right hand and he settled both elbows on the table and leaned his jaw on them. The gesture was simple but it had a clear message.

_You're not leaving until you tell me._

As if under a trance, Kyoko told him everything disclosing the parts that involved Ai. Ren could sense some gaps between the stories that made the story incomplete but he saw that Kyoko was set on the story and he was tired so, he let it go—_for now._

"Modeling huh? This should be fairly interesting." He said aloud in no one in particular. She blushed though at his words. She didn't want anyone that she knows to see the pictures but Ren Tsuruga was a former model, who better than him to give her tips?

"Anou, Tsuruga-senpai, can I ask you to help me with something?" Kyoko asked him timidly.

"Sure."

"Can…you give me tips on how to walk?"

He blinked at her question. "I think you can walk perfectly fine, Mogami-san." he said, questioning her motives for asking a favor in his head.

"No! Not walk-walk. I mean model-walk." She elaborated.

He snickered a little at her terms. _Walk-walk, that's sort of cute_. "Ah, I can…but you want to learn how a female model walks right?" he asked for verification.

She blinked at his question. "Yes, that would be obvious. Please take care of me." She bowed.

He sweat dropped at her implications. "Mogami-san, I'm a man." He told her. She nodded. "So, I can't teach you."

"But you're Ren Tsuruga! Surely a pro like you could teach a novice like me easily!" she insisted.

"Yes but Mogami-san…"

"You've worked with plenty of models right? After seeing how they walked once, I'm sure you can do it!" she told him with burning eyes, convinced that her senpai was unstoppable.

Ren sighed as he finished taping a straight line on the floor. He couldn't calm down after being forwardly challenged like that, albeit it being accidental. "Alright then, stand up straight and try to walk on this white line." He instructed her.

"Yes, Kyoko Mogami will attempt to walk on this straight line!" She stood up straight…like a pole.

"You don't have to be so stiff. Relax."

"Yes!" she answered him but her posture became stiffer. He sweat dropped at her obvious opposite actions to what she was saying.

"Alright then, when you walk balance your body by leaning forward." She followed him. "Right hand in front of you and use your left hand to balance yourself." _Could this be…?_ "Raise your leg a little…" …_the secret to walk gracefully like a model?_

"…there the perfect exits sign." Ren finished. She gaped at him. True enough her posture was like the exit sign. "Why don't you jump in that position? It might look like a deer crossing sign." He suggested to her.

She slumped to her knees crying tears of blood, muttering, "You tricked me…"

"No, I'm sorry. I wanted to make a joke because you were so stiff." He admitted as he sweat dropped at her depression.

"Do you want to know the secret of the world's most beautiful model? She's called the most beautiful woman in the world. Till this day I have never seen a more beautiful woman than she." Ren told her. He saw the way her eyes lit up a little. He smiled. He offered her his hand, pulling her up to her feet.

"Ready?" he asked her when they were both facing the mirror adjacent to their positions. "On my mark start walking, for the time being just watch how I walk." He instructed her.

"Ready, set, Go."

* * *

**Ha, so how was it? Tell me in reviews. Please give me constructive criticism. **

***onigiri—rice ball wrapped in seaweed.**

***Oyakodon—chicken and egg rice bowls.**

***obba-san-san—old lady.**


	6. Escape I

**Pleas re-read this from chapter 1, if you're feeling a bit diligent. I did some minor changes that might explain some of your confusion. And this is the last chapter I'm uploading for a little while so, I purposely made it long. Get some popcorn ready because I wasn't kidding when I said **_**long, **_**it's about 20 pages give and take.**

**Chapter 6: Escape Part I**

* * *

"_Kyoko-chan, as long as you are in the presence of a customer you must always smile! No matter how bad you are feeling …you mustn't let them see it. Our business depends on customers who think: __**'I'm glad I came here'**__ and __**'I'd love to come here again**__'__…it's important for our customers to love our ryokan. And if you want them to love it then…you must never forget the love that we feel towards our customers…"_

_Those girls snickered, "How fortunate…to be able to stay near the prince…Sho-kun must have been convinced by his parents to be __**nice**__ to you, even if he didn't want to…"_

_Another one joined in, her voice laced with purposely chosen venomous words. "How much money was the Fuwa's paid, to care for you?"_

"_How envious…to be able to buy every girl's dream prince with money. __**Your…parents must really love you a lot**__." The last girl snide another comment. _

"_Such a big difference from the small allowance that we get from our parents…__**What a fortunate person**__." The first girl chuckled. _

_This isn't something…you can repair through effort. If it's broken once…you can mend the pieces back together, yet…it won't be the same ever again…my heart…_

"_Mama…mama…please help me…" she sobbed whole-heartedly, for the woman in the suit to stop and to finally, finally smile at her. But she never did, she always moved forward without a glance backwards towards her only child. She loves fairytales because the princess always gets the prince who would save her; carry her off to her happily ever after. They always started out the same, the girl who worked the hardest will eventually be loved by those around her…she thought they had something in common…_

_But they were __**different **__like heaven and earth. Her prince abandoned her. She worked her ass off but she wasn't rewarded with anything but heartache. No one came to save her…no one wanted to __**love**__ her. _

_And Mogami Kyoko had had enough of it all. She was sick of feeling heartache and she was sick of being let down. In the end, the only one you can rely on is yourself. That was what she realized when she decided on her vengeance._

_But then; she met a rude ghost who told her otherwise and she was made to realize that her heart still felt sick of the overbearing emotions that weight her down. What did she want? A small fairy appeared on her right, smiling._

_She wanted to love herself._

_She wanted someone who would love her whole-heartedly._

_She wanted a family who would love her despite her shortcomings. _

_She wanted…to be free of her heartache._

'_Then, go through that door.' The small fairy pointed out to her. Suddenly, two doors appeared in front of her. 'Kyoko-sama' the fairy squeaked, 'you have many doors that you can go through but…the door that will lead to your happily ever after, can only be unlocked by that key.'_

_What key? _

_There was a cold feeling on her cheek. Oh, that key. For some reason, Kyoko found her body to be rather small than what she remembered. The key was almost half her size. She was wearing a blue frilly dress, like the one she had always read in 'Alice in Wonderland.' _

'_How will I know which door is the right door?' Kyoko asked the red glittering fairy._

'_The one where __**he**__ is waiting for you, Kyoko-sama.' The fairy told her as if it was the most obvious thing in the world._

'_Who's __**he**__?' Kyoko asked again._

_Giggles joined in the conversation as well as a few hundred fairies that started circling around Kyoko. 'Your prince of course, Kyoko-sama. Hurry he's waiting for you.' They said to her giggling. They started to push Kyoko towards a door, urging her to go through it._

_Too happy and mesmerized by the tiny beings, Kyoko let herself be pushed. The door opened, revealing a field of beautiful flowers. She ventured into the field where the door was opened wide. She noticed a blonde boy standing in the middle of the clearing, his back to her. He felt oddly, familiar to her, though she couldn't put a reason for it. _

'_Kyoko.' she heard him call her name. His voice was kind, tender and did she imagine it? …it sounded as if he loved her, as well. The light was too bright, she couldn't see his face. He offered her his hand. He had large hands…she reached for it and…_

…_felt her body being pulled back to the door, something was forcing her back and she desperately tried to reach the boy's outstretched hand. But she couldn't reach no matter how much she struggled. She saw the field become smaller and smaller as she was pushed back out from the door she entered, and the figure of that boy diminished, as well, until the door snapped shut—veiling that once shiny bright place. Her world was dark._

* * *

Kyoko slowly blinked her eyelids apart to a green field. She awoke, to the sound of the train puffing and chugging, moving the train. Kyoko yawned, covering her mouth as she did so. Why was she on a train again?

Oh, that's right. Ai had insisted that she rode the train to Jinbocho, though she didn't know why. Jinbocho is Tokyo's center of used-book stores and publishing houses, and a popular antique and curio shopping area. The center of Jinbōchō is at the crossing of Yasukuni-dōri and Hakusan-dōri, above Jimbōchō Station on the Tokyo Metro Hanzōmon Line, Toei Mita Line and Toei Shinjuku Line. The prestigious Tokyo Book Binding Club and Literature Preservation Society are located in Jinbōchō, and the area is within walking distance of a number of major universities, including Nihon, Senshu, Meiji, Hosei and Juntendo.

Kyoko couldn't imagine why the ghost would want to go to such a place. Was there someone she knew who lived there? If that was the case then; Kyoko supposed it wasn't that out of place but it clashed with Ai's statement of not remembering where she originated from. But she remembered her family…it would seem Ai's memory was half-complete and half-blank.

But why was Ai so insistent that she had to come along?

_Maybe it's because you're the only one who can see her?_ A small voice at the back of her head retorted. Kyoko found it annoying because most of the time, the voice sounded a lot like her senpai. She respected him but his habit of teasing and bullying her, sometimes, made her resent him—just a little. At this, she blushed. After fighting with him at the Daruma-ya, Kyoko was so furious that she went to the internet to search for his accomplishments and to see what was so great about him that made him Japan's top male model.

Then, she came across numerous search engines regarding Tsuruga Ren. As she read on about what most people and his co-workers think of the _egoistic _model, she was struck with awe. He was described as a gentleman on and off photo shoots sets, very friendly and is kind to everybody. (_Except to me, _Kyoko thought grudgingly.) He was always on time and had the best set of work ethics everyone's ever seen. He was popular with both men and women because of his good-nature. And was very hard-working and was very diligent towards his works.

There was nothing but praises for Tsuruga Ren that if Kyoko hadn't meet the man, would have thought he wasn't even human. His only weakness as a person was he doesn't care much for his health (even if he says otherwise) because of his negligence towards meal times.

Even so, a random thought occurred to Kyoko spontaneously. There was no way someone could be so perfect. But Kyoko knew another secret of his. Whenever he was angry, her senpai would smile that gentleman's smile to hide his rage. While it fooled almost everyone, it didn't fool Kyoko for a minute because of her recently-acquired grudge antennas. Her grudges were usually so blissfully happy when he got mad, that was saying something because her grudges were…well, were grudging little things and they were only attracted to super negative auras.

Kyoko started vibrating, and two boys in the back ground, cowered thinking she would do something horrifying; because of the incredible speed her hands were moving in and in all directions.

"Oh, there it is." Kyoko said, pulling out her hand phone and pressing the 'answer call' button.

"That girl is so misleading." One of the boys commented.

"Moshi-Moshi." Kyoko called out into the phone.

"Mo! Kyoko where are you?" Kanae yelled on the other side of the phone.

"Sorry, Moko-san, but I'm headed to Jinbocho right now. How is everything holding up?" Kyoko asked her friend.

Kanae sighed. It didn't matter, Kanae wasn't going to reveal who her model was anyway, so it didn't matter that the said model was sitting on her butt, on her way to Jinbocho. "It's going on fine. You should have been here to see Erika's face when I opened the booth. She tried to shut it down (_after being the one who set it up_, Kanae thought to herself) luckily Tsuruga-san helped me out. He stepped in and told everyone that this was my debut photos and got everyone to back off." Kanae told Kyoko.

Kyoko laughed nervously. "Aha…ha…anou, Moko-san?"

"Yeah?"

"…does he…know…it's me?" Kyoko asked, biting on her lip.

"I don't think so, I didn't tell anyone, he wouldn't know…unless you told him?"

"What? Of course not! It's too embarrassing to let him know such a thing!" Kyoko shrieked, horrified by the idea.

"Sure, sure, it's even more embarrassing than flashing your panties to him huh?"

"MOKO-SAN!" Kyoko yelled indignantly.

Kanae gave a small laugh. It was so easy to tease this girl sometimes. "Whatever, everything's fine here. Though, I did run into a little trouble with Fuwa. He insists that I introduce him my _model_. Wonder what he'll do when he finds out?" Kanae thought absently aloud.

"…not if I have anything to say about it." Kyoko told her.

"Why are you so stubborn about this?" Kanae asked her.

"It's because if he knows then; he'll think it's because I'm chasing after him and probably won't leave me alone. I don't want anything to do with him. That Sho-baka, he thinks the world revolves around him." Kyoko said, troubled by the possibilities if the fact that she modeled in those pictures ever got out.

Kanae sighed. When she eavesdropped in on Kyoko and Ai's conversation, she had a slight grasp on Kyoko and Fuwa's relationship and she had heard the humiliation Kyoko had dealt with and how it had affected her image at school. Kyoko was in a word, infamous. After meeting the atrocious pig-headed first year, Kanae didn't think Kyoko's fear was too far-fetched at all; in fact she might even be spot on in her theories regarding the boy. Kanae thought back when they had their first photo shoot. Kanae had returned later, only to find a panicking Ai and no Kyoko. As she searched the whole complex up and down for the half-dressed girl, it never occurred to her that Kyoko would be sitting eating dinner with the famous Tsuruga Ren.

She ran into the girl as Tsuruga-san was walking her to his car, insisting that he took her home. Kanae blew a fuse, seeing as Kyoko had been missing for nearly hours and hadn't even called her to let her know that the idiot was alright. It was almost midnight, for Pete's sakes. When she muttered that she didn't know Kanae's number, Kanae felt a stab of guilt after knowing that Kyoko was late at going home was because she was learning how to walk like a _model _for her sake. After that, she forgave Kyoko and Tsuruga Ren offered both girls rides home.

At school the next day, Kane made Kyoko confessed everything that had transpired between her and the former model. She also found out how Kyoko met the man and the short version of her running away with her 'prince,' Kyoko's short months, mostly consisting of her revenge on the prince turned goblin and last but not least, her decision to abandon the notion of revenge on the goblin.

"_Revenge is like a double edge sword. It can cut your enemy but it can also harm its owner." _ Kanae recalled Kyoko's misty eyes and soft pained voice as Kyoko said this to her.

"Hmm…no need to worry, he doesn't know…but he's kind of stupid, not knowing. You guys were childhood friends, weren't you?" Kanae voiced out her opinion.

Kyoko laughed bitterly, "I don't think he ever saw me as a girl. He didn't even recognize me as corner girl! If it's not someone with an F cup breasts, I don't think they're in his line of vision. " Kyoko informed Kanae, sadly.

"Really now? Then that's too bad, most of those girls end up like old grandmas with droopy breasts by the time they're older." Kanae told Kyoko, with a knowing tone in her voice. "And you know what? I've seen almost all the boys that saw you photos having either a nosebleed or turn red blushing. I guess our plan worked." Kanae said to her, with an underlying message.

_See, what that idiot says means nothing. You are BEAUTIFUL._

Kyoko blushed thinking that Kanae was saying it for her sake, trying to cheer her up but before she could say so. She got a message. When she clicked it open, there were a crowd of onlookers admiring her picture, mostly _**male**_. There was no mistake in their eyes for the heart beams nearly fried Kyoko's grudges. Most of them had love-struck expressions on each respective faces.

"And don't say, I'm saying it for your sake. I don't give out compliments if that person didn't deserve it. You were good. That photo is your proof." Kanae told her fondly.

"Oi, you!" Both girls recognized who the voice belonged to. Fuwa Sho is quite the stubborn pig, apparently.

"Shit, Fuwa's here, I'll call you back later." Kanae cursed lightly and took care _not _to mention Kyoko's name aloud because of how close he was to her and promptly ended the call, tucking her phone into her skinny jeans.

Kyoko let out a sigh of relief and mentally thanked Kanae for her quick thinking. She was almost exposed.

Today was the start of Golden Week, which was why the train was fully packed with people all over the country wanting to go back home. The seat cubicle which she shared with a married couple and an old man was comfy. The old man kept nodding off to sleep so, Kyoko didn't bother him but she was _so _bored! She thought resentfully, that Ai could have at the very _least _beenbothered to keep her company for the journey instead of disappearing yet again. Kyoko wondered where the ghost went whenever she disappeared.

…

On second thoughts, maybe it was for the best that Ai wasn't with her. She might end up being taken to an asylum for talking to herself or worse, cursing at the air, should she get upset with the ghost again.

"Are you going home for Golden Week, student?"

Kyoko blinked at the question and directed her gaze to the kind looking lady in front of her. The lady was very pretty (but not as pretty as Moko-san). She had brown mousy hair and kind brown eyes. She was cradling a baby on her arm, smiling at her. Her husband, sat next to her was sound asleep like their child.

When the kind lady saw that Kyoko was staring at her husband, she said. "He just loves to sleep, but don't tell him I told you that." The lady winked at Kyoko. Realizing she was being rude, Kyoko blushed and turned her head away from the lady's sleeping husband.

"Gomenasai, I was being rude." Kyoko apologized.

"Oh, it's alright, my husband is quite the looker. I have trouble keeping young girls away from him." She told Kyoko, while looking at her husband fondly.

Kyoko looked away, feeling as if she was intruding in on the couple's intimate moment. Her heart hurt, she felt like a knife was drawing shallow wounds around it, over and over again. She remembered Sho, he hadn't wanted her when she was _just _plain Kyoko but when Moko-san spread her magic (photography) skills on her, he was eager to get to know her?

Just how selfish was he? Kyoko wanted to cry out resentfully at his treatment of her. Isn't there anyone that would love _her _because she was herself? Why was it she only drew attention when she was pretending to be something else? Kyoko felt the onslaught of tears coming but…

"Student? Are you alright? Are you ill?" she heard the lady ask her. Kyoko shook her head furiously, the lady offered her a handkerchief and Kyoko accepted the kind gesture with shaking hands.

"I'm fine, thank you."

"It's no trouble. Is there something on you mind, student?"

"It's…um, nothing…my name is Mogami Kyoko." Kyoko said it shyly.

The lady laughed, "Now I'm being rude, it's nice to meet you, Kyoko-chan. I'm Aidou Tsuyuno. My husband is called Aidou Arashi. This little mister is Aidou Hakuya." She nudged a little at her sleeping baby. Kyoko smiled. The baby was adorable…

"Would you like to hold him?" Tsuyuno asked Kyoko.

"Eh?"

Tsuyuno stood up, and slowly made her way to Kyoko. "Put out your hands like this, Kyoko-chan." Tsuyuno instructed the teen, how to hold a child six months old. Kyoko did as was instructed. Hesitantly, she held out her trembling arms, a little scared of holding something so delicate for the first time—a baby. "Don't be scared Kyoko-chan. My Hakuya haven't even grown his teeth yet. He's harmless." Tsuyuno joked.

Kyoko gave her a nervous laugh and held her arms out a bit firmer this time. Tsuyuno leaned over Kyoko who was sitting at the time. Gently, she placed her baby in Kyoko's arms. "Careful, babies heads aren't strong within their first year so, we have to make sure their heads are held." Tsuyuno cautioned Kyoko. Kyoko nodded, carefully adjusting the baby's head to her arm so that the baby was okay.

Tsuyuno giggled. "Kyoko-chan, no need to be so stiff, or you'll get tired easily." Kyoko panicked not knowing what to do. Tsuyuno sat next to Kyoko, helping her adjust to how to hold a baby, and eased her up slowly with stories of Hakuya's birth and other fairytales she planned on telling Hakuya when he gets older. Kyoko was fascinated by the stories and had to gently rock when Hakuya suddenly cried for his mother.

"Sorry, Kyoko-chan, do you think you can take care of Hakuya for a while? I need to go…" Tsuyuno said her husband at her side. Arashi had woken up in the middle of Tsuyuno telling Kyoko another fairytale. They were formally introduced by Tsuyuno before she resumed her story.

"It's alright, Tsuyuno-san…I think I got the hang of it already." Kyoko reassured the mother, smiling lightly.

Tsuyuno left with her husband for a while. The lady had a weak body so, her husband was insistent that he went with her while Kyoko babysat. They didn't doubt that Kyoko would do something bad…_they were too trusting_ Kyoko thought to herself but was glad for it.

"Hey, princess."

Kyoko whipped her head in surprise to the origin of the voice to see Ai looking at her. But she moved too suddenly that surprised the baby. Hakuya started crying. Kyoko panicked, she didn't think the baby would cry between the short period of time that his parents were gone.

"Shhh, sweetheart. It's okay now. Go to sleep." Ai cooed and she gently (?) rubbed Hakuya's head with her finger. The baby blinked a few times, still whimpering but slept as Ai started humming. Kyoko was amazed. Ai was…

"You shouldn't move too fast or you'll surprise the baby…they need to be assured at all times that they're safe. When you do that, they'll get scared." Ai explained. "What's its name?" Ai asked, suddenly whispering.

"Aidou…Hakuya…"

"Hakuya…" Ai whispered in a broken voice. She wore a face of anguish and melancholy. Kyoko felt confused.

"You're…really good with kids." Kyoko commented.

"Well you turn out like that when you get four younger siblings under you. Being the oldest entitles you to take care of them…of course; it helps when you love kids too—makes the job easier." Ai told her while continuing to finger the small locks of hair on Hakuya's head.

"Do…you miss them?" Kyoko asked Ai.

Ai felt as if Kyoko had slapped her with the unexpected question. How could she not miss them? She thought of them all the time. She loves her family so much…it hurt to be away from them. She wanted to go home. Right now…she wants to go to see them…

It hurts. It hurts.

Ai blinked away the tears, trying to answer Kyoko's question.

It wasn't any good. Her voice came out trembling and shaky, broken. "I have three younger brothers and a sister. My mom and dad are in their forties…they always fight about stupid things but they really love each other." Ai gave a small laugh; her tears were becoming too hard to hold back. "My brother, the first son of the family…he looks a lot like my mom, and we always fight but like our parents we can fight about the stupidest things. Like…like…" Ai sniffed a little. "…which ice cream flavor is better…Chocy Choc or cookie dough?" Ai paused, panting. Kyoko felt bad for asking the careless question. This topic pained Ai that was for sure. No wonder, she was so insistent that Kyoko wasted no time on life…because she had a short time living it…till she couldn't live it anymore. Ai was filled with untold regrets perhaps…no, she is filled with regrets. That was what she had told her when they first met after all.

"My younger brother…he likes to play games and tops…he collects all of his favorite toys…" Ai smiled as she recalled the memory, playing with him. "…he's really a lot like me…so, I guess I was a bit harsh with him…he wants to be a teacher." At this, Ai's dam burst but still she continued. "Then…then…my sister is a bit of a brat. She's a bit spoiled but…she's a very sweet girl. She really—likes princesses." Ai's voice sounded ragged now, holding back from falling apart. Kyoko couldn't do anything to stop her—it felt like this was Kyoko's only chance to find out about Ai's past because this one moment of weakness. Ai was very guarded about her past and never told Kyoko anything about her family.

"…my youngest brother is five this year, I think…he really likes power rangers and…apple juice. And...And…he's really, really cute, always talking as if he was the grown up…" Ai laughed at the memory.

_, ,, ,,, ,, , . , ,, ,,, ,, ,_

"_Kak—efah!" a five-year old, called out for her. He had black jet hair and brown eyes._

"_What is it?" she turned to him, amused._

"_I want…air apple, um, with air and straw and ice la!" he requested. He sounded very sure of what he wanted. Ai laughed, merrily. He was so cute._

_, ,, ,,, ,, , . , ,, ,,, ,, ,_

"_Look, look. It's a pregnant cat." She pointed out to him to the strolling cat outside in their lawn. _

_He came to look too. She thought he was adorable. He liked cats, yelled over the discovery of one but whenever one comes near him, he would yell out in fright, scared of the furry creature. He sat on her lap as they peered over the couch positioned to the back of the window. _

"_Huh? Pregnant cat? No, no, no." He said. She turned to him, raising a brow. He already knew what a cat was…and that is definitely a cat because even if she had to wear glasses. She could see well enough to distinguish the creature. He continued. "—not pregnant cat, A fat cat!" he admonished her as if she was wrong. And she burst out laughing at her little brother. _

_, ,, ,,, ,, , . , ,, ,,, ,, ,_

"…I miss him. I miss my family…of course I do." Ai smiled, reminiscing the good times they had together. They were a rowdy bunch but they were a rowdy family that knew how to have fun together. They were _perfect_ for her. She sniffed, her tears slowing down now and she could talk normally again after clearing her throat several times.

"…I'm sorry…" Kyoko told her. But in her heart, Kyoko longed for that kind of affection to be blessed onto her. She was jealous of Ai who had a family who loved her but…she couldn't understand the feeling of loving someone so much to the point where it hurt her. She was always near Sho so she never felt that way. The feeling was foreign to her.

"Don't be…" Ai sniffled. "—It's not your fault I'm dead. I guess it was my time…you can't change fate but you _can _do your best so that you can have the best future. That's what my mother used to say to me. It's a matter of choice." Ai told Kyoko. "I always thought that…I'll get married and get kids…but it wasn't meant to be." Ai said sadly.

Kyoko didn't say anything. Ai just continued to stroke Hakuya's little head. They fell into a companionable silence.

"What do you think about children, Kyoko?" Ai asked her out of the blue. Kyoko's mind blanched—she couldn't think of an answer immediately. But Ai didn't pester her for it and waited patiently for her.

"I…think they're cute…I guess." Kyoko answered warily.

"Then…what about omurice?" Kyoko's eyes widen at the question. Was Ai really seriously asking her these questions?

"I really like them."

"What about love?"

"I'd normally say…it's a prelude of pain and despair…but I'm trying to look past that."

Ai laughed at Kyoko's honest answer. "That's good…but the word _trying _usually doesn't mean much. The key point you should be using here is _doing your best_. It's…a psychological thing." Ai shrugged. Kyoko could accept that…sort of. Maybe it had to so with your state of mind or something…Kyoko couldn't complete her thoughts as Ai's next question probably blew the rest of her brains away.

"So ~ what do you think about…being a mother?"

Kyoko grimaced at the notion. "I wouldn't know…" A mother is—your female parent. People sometimes call their mother Mom or, especially if they are children, Mommy. She feeds you and tucks you in bed at night. A mother makes bento's for her children and kisses their booboo's. She _loves _her children.

"…but if I had to answer…it's an impossible thing for me…"

"And why's that I wonder?"

"A mother…before you become one…you have to—marry and…you have to find…marriage…"

"Yes, yes, yes, marriage, yadda, yadda, yadda, and then the sex and then? What? Are you worried about the sex part?"

"No!"

"No you're not worried about the sex part?"

"I mean no to the whole process!"

"Oh jeez, Kyoko if you don't have sex then you can't get babies…we all can't be like Mary you know?"

"Stop saying _that_!"

"Say Wha…oh! That word? You're embarrassed?" Ai laughed out loud. "Oh you're too cute Kyoko. I know your hubby's going to…"

"Stop!" Kyoko screamed and with it, woke up Hakuya. Quickly, Kyoko rocked the baby back and forth, hoping he would fall asleep again. But Hakuya apparently had different ideas. He cried even louder as he realized his mother wasn't there. Kyoko's fear reappeared, thinking she had done something wrong and was the reason the baby was crying. This only proved a point in her head; she wasn't fit to be a mother. Her own children would hate her…

But somehow Ai had read Kyoko like an open book. She leaned forward and made funny faces at the baby that made him blink and laugh. He reached out his tiny fingers towards Ai whilst smiling toothlessly at Ai. Ai returned the innocent gesture by grasping the tiny fingers with her longer ones, smiling sweetly at Hakuya and cooed softly to him. He laughed. Kyoko watched the whole scene with detached eyes. Her heart ached a little not being able to calm the baby down.

"Babies can sense when they're mothers aren't near. Crying is a way for them to tell their mothers they want to be held since they can't speak yet." Ai said to Kyoko as if it would explain everything. It was strange but Kyoko understood the underlying meaning.

_It's not your fault._

Ai was good at reading people, Kyoko noted for future reference as her mind struck a thought. What if…once upon a time…her mother had actually smiled at her like Tsuyuno-san who smiles so fondly at her son? Kyoko couldn't imagine her mother smiling because she never smiled in front of her. Mogami Saena…was a cold woman…even to her only daughter.

But…the thought—the possibility that in the past her mother had actually loved _her_, made her heart warm with hope. It was nice to be able to think nice things about her mother for once.

"Kyoko…your mother…don't you want to see her…even if for just for a while?" Ai asked her. Her face serious and there was no trace of humor that Kyoko knew that came with Ai's elaborate pranks.

_No…she didn't…_Kyoko thought in alarm. There was something fishy about the whole trip Kyoko knew but she ignored it, but if Ai…then, she had to get back as quickly as soon as possible before Ai made her do something stupid.

"Kyoko." Ai's tone was grave that it worried Kyoko what she had in mind. Fear gripped Kyoko's heart like an eagle's talons on their meal. So tight and suffocating—Kyoko couldn't breathe.

"Wh…why are you asking me that?" Kyoko's voice was trembling…she was scared. Irrational thoughts seized her conscious. She thought about jumping off the train or just taking the train back to Tokyo and forgetting the implications Ai was hinting at. She didn't want to do _this_! Ai couldn't force her! She won't do it!

"You're a smart girl Kyoko… you tell me."

"Why? Why?" Kyoko screamed out.

"Kyoko-chan?" Kyoko whipped her near crying face at Tsuyuno-san. Arashi-san quickly took away Hakuya away from Kyoko. Tsuyuno touched Kyoko's shoulder and Kyoko broke down in sobbing tears.

"We both know you can't really move on without resolving this…think about it. I'll wait for you at the station. You have about five minutes to decide—use it wisely." With those parting words, Ai disappeared the way she appeared; unnoticed.

"Damn it Ai!"

* * *

"Who is she?"

Kanae wanted to kick the stupid boy's face for not being able to take a simple _blunt _hint. But, she had to refrain from using violence on him in a _public_. Kudos for him! For not, confronting her in an undisclosed spot where no one can _see_. Kanae took careful measured breathes, cooling off her temper.

"What's her name?"

On second thought, maybe _she _could drag him somewhere and _then_ beat the crap out of him… The boy was disgusting her, taking the whole experience to a whole new height. He saw that the Kyoko in her photos were _beautiful_ and wanted her for himself? Kanae wasn't dense…she recognized the determined look in the boy's eyes. He wanted Kyoko—as a conquest. If he ever found out it was Kyoko his childhood friend, he'd think it was well within his rights that no longer exists. If she could get away with it, Kanae would have bashed that goblin's head in or push him off the building _right now_, if it meant she could get away with murder.

Kanae gritted her teeth in frustration. She didn't know why she felt so strongly for the weird girl or why she was equally determined to protect her but right now isn't the time to ponder on these questions. Kanae had a mission to accomplish. And there was some part of her that admitted that between these past few weeks that she had grown fond of Kyoko.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Just answer the question damn it!" _why was this woman so damn stubborn?_ Sho had thought to himself.

"I don't see why I should…she's _my _model and who the hell are you? It's well within my rights to protect her from assholes like you!"

"What's _that _supposed to mean?"

"Don't act innocent with me…I've heard about you, all you want is to play around with her like some kind of toy. She's my model and I _say no!_"

"What gave you that idea?" Sho was seriously offended. He was _nice _to all girls.

"The girl that your fan-girls have made it a habit to bully, what do you have against her?"

"WHAT?" This photographer was seriously ticking him off. He had come to see _her._ She should be grateful that a famous model like him paid any attention to her tiny exhibition. Didn't she realize he could make her unable to work in the field with just one bad word?

"I know what you did, I'm not stupid. You're the one who keeps encouraging them to continually pester her. If it was a meek girl maybe she would've cracked but thank god the girl was strong and can put up with it. That's what you're going to do to my model if I even gave you a damn scent. You'll pressure her to become yours. Go back to the hole where you crawled out of, Fuwa." Kanae said back to him, her words held _bite_.

"Why you little…!" Sho lifted a hand to smack the irritating photographer. But, Sho's hand was stopped in midair.

"Haven't anyone told you that it's rude to raise your hand against a woman?" Ren interjected. Sho tried to move his arm but Ren gripped it even harder making the young-model wince.

"Let go, jerk! You're bruising my arm!" Sho shouted out and Kanae snorted at the weak retort. Sho just made himself look like a pansy. How superficial.

Ren let go without a word. Sho turned to Kanae with a glare that she paid no mind to. "Fine be that way! All I have to do is show these photos to the Director of Akatoki and she'll be signing with _my _company in no time." Sho threatened. Kanae paled. Kyoko then, would really be stuck with him. Akatoki was a big company; they can pressure the school to make Kyoko join them. Damn it!

"Now, now kids play nice." Another voice interjected.

Ren turned around to the intruding voice when he saw his boss. "President?" and he were quite shocked with what he saw. His boss was wearing normal clothes for _once_. "President?" well, he had to ask for conformation. Asking never hurt anyone. Kanae was just as stunned.

"Ren-kun…you hurt me…you act as if you didn't recognize me." Lory said, tearfully. (He's faking it I tell you!)

"Um, what are you wearing?" Ren mentally slapped himself for asking a stupid question. Sho raised a brow at him. To him, the man was completely normal. Well, that's the understatement of the year. Takarada Lory, _normal_? Now, that's laughable.

Lory pouted. "I wanted to do a 'collateral collector' theme today…but when I asked the school for permission, they said no. Aren't they being mean, Ren-kun?" Lory whined.

Ren sighed at his boss's antics, followed by Kanae's suffering sigh. Sho had his mouth gaping at the man. Surely he wasn't serious about what he said…right?

"No, President. They didn't want you to scare the students."

Lory gasped dramatically. "But Ren-kun, you know that we must…"

"What are you doing here, Takarada-taichou?" Ren rudely interrupted Lory on purpose. LME couldn't afford to let its rep. down. Already having a bizarre president who liked to parade around the agency in cosplay was already making people suspicious.

"Of course, I came to see how you were doing at your new school. So how is the school here in Japan?"

Ren sighed again. There was no getting past this man. He had been evading him since the paperwork for his enrollment here. "It's fine."

"Just fine, Ren-kun? You didn't meet a girl? Did you fall in love with a nice girl?"

"Yes. No and again no. President, I would appreciate it if you didn't butt in my personal life."

"A-ah, I wouldn't be butting in as you say if you had one, right?"

"Whatever! Are you going to tell me or not?" Sho grew bored of the conversation between his self-proclaimed rival and the weirdo.

"And how many times do I have to tell you, that I won't?" Kanae shrieked back.

"May I interrupt? Why are the two of you fighting, Kotonami-kun?" Lory asked. Both teens whipped their heads to meet the man's eyes.

"Butt out!" Sho shouted but Kanae remained curiously quiet, hoping the man would have a solution for her that would still protect her friend's identity from the goblin. "He's asking for my model."

"Is this your model, Kotonami-kun?" he asked her. Her eyes met him, proud. She nodded at him.

"Wait you guys know this guy?" Sho asked them but Kanae chose to ignore him. Ren watched Lory's expressions quietly.

"Very good, Kotonami-kun. Is she your friend? I can see you improved on the 'love' with your model."

Kanae blushed at this. She grudgingly admitted that with Kyoko she didn't mind putting up with her amusing antics. Work at that time was simply fun for her. "Sort…of…"

Ren smiled. He looked at the other pictures that Kanae had taken. One glance and he already knew who it was. He sucked in a breath, how can she look even more beautiful behind the lens? He could practically feel the raw emotions bursting from each photo. She was strong willed, provoking. He couldn't tear his eyes away from her.

In one corner of the booth was Kyoko in an oversized button down shirt that he found her wearing in his apartment the other day. She looked half asleep but Ren knew better. She had a teddy bear tucked under her chin as she exposed a side of her neck. The picture, Ren found was very intimate to his eyes. She looked so innocent and alluring at the same time. In the photo, she had her eyes shut her lips were slightly parted and she was smiling softly, content with her dream world. Her hair was draped over a shoulder but a few strands of her hair fell forward in front of her lashes. It had an essence of a child-like innocence that made men all around to want to hold her themselves. At this thought, Ren felt a little a churning in his stomach.

He forced his eyes away from that photo only to land them, on another one. In this one, Kyoko wore a white dress with a blue ribbon at the waist. She had a sun hat with summer flowers at the top. Her hair was down, blown softly by the strong wind, he presumed, indicated by the hand that clutched at the hat. She was smiling cheerfully, in a field of flowers, out of all the flowers there; she shone the brightest in his eyes. Exactly like a sunflower.

In another photo, she had a black soulless look in her eyes as they stared back to the camera. She wore a dark night gown with thin straps. From the photo, Ren could see that she was wet by the way, tiny droplets of water that ran down her throat. Her arms were at her side, doing nothing. She looked like a doll…unsmiling.

The photos had powerful emotions running through them. But…the one that caught Ren's absolute attention was a picture of her naked waist up. The scar on her back was as clear as daylight. It made Ren wonder.

_Was the scar real? Or was it just make-up?_

_If it was real…how did she get it?_

_Why did she look so…vulnerable?_

He hated the obvious pain in her eyes and the vulnerability she displayed out in the open. He knew her as the strong-spirited girl that didn't back down from any challenge. For him to see her other than that…was unpleasant. It made his temper boil, at the thought someone had hurt her. It made him want to take her away and lock her up somewhere safe, where no one could hurt her…

Ren blinked to clear out the blatant possessive tone from his thoughts. He didn't even realize how close Kuon had surfaced. Unknown, to Ren, Lory had been watching his every move and facial expression. Lorry grinned like a child, Ren probably hadn't noticed yet but he felt strongly for the girl. It was that obvious except to him. Lory could make use of this girl. He had listened to the threat the boy made to Kotonami-kun.

Well, it was time to abuse his power as the president of LME then. Lory Takarada was excited to see how his plans turn out. Lory Takarada always get what he wants.

* * *

Okay, let's get this straightened out. Kyoko needed to ascertain the facts before her right now. Her mind was a muddled wasteland right now. She pretty much looks like a zombie resurrected and it was scaring a whole lot of people at the station.

Fact 1: Kyoko _no _longer vowed vengeance on her childhood friend, Fuwa Sho.

Fact2: This was because a supernatural force had somehow messed with her reasoning that made her _believe _that revenge was bad for the heart.

Fact 3: The ghost—her name is Ai, was a little crazy in the head. The girl-ghost was convinced that if you don't wash your feet at night, then, there was a chance for the, (Kyoko quotes; _pretty looking people who aren't really pretty but appear to be so, they can trick you) _to spirit you away. How did that work? was Kyoko's reaction at that time but the ghost remained strong with her statement. Normally, Kyoko was happy to hear any legends or fairytales from anyone. But, the story that Ai had told her sounded more creepy than charming by her standards and Kyoko had to admit, her standards were a little higher than normal people regarding the supernatural since she could somewhat see them. It wasn't a normal-oh my god-it's-a-ghost kind of creepy. It was more like oh-my-god-I-have -a-creepy-stalker-demon kind of creepy. Kyoko was seriously worried for herself right now. Every night now, she couldn't help but wash her feet before going to bed…

Fact 4: The same-said ghost had convinced her to do a photo-shoot. A _photo-shoot_! Something so glamorous that she thought she'd never ever do!

Fact 5: Due to some bizarre insane entity, (Insert author here!) Her childhood friend and former love, who in the past called her a boring, plain and unappealing woman suddenly wanted to be associated with the model he saw in the photo's Moko-san took.

Fact6: She finally got a best-friend! This piece of news was like a piece of heaven to her sixteen-year-old ears!

Fact 7: She had fought and actually _flipped _her middle finger to her senpai in school. What's worse it was that the same kind senpai that had took her to the infirmary when she fainted in the library and is now currently helping her with a lot of her problems.

Fact 8: She was in Jinbocho right now…

Fact 9: She was running out of facts because her brain had officially left the building, er, train, when Ai had insinuated that she was here to meet a certain _someone_ that she didn't want to meet.

Fact 10: Kyoko wonders to herself which option would be better? To go to an asylum, because so many people are looking at her weirdly and she saw a guard phoning perhaps a mental institution to inquire if they had any escapee's, while shooting her suspicious glances? Or—to go see the person that she doesn't want to see?

Hmm….

Decisions, decisions, what should she decide?

…

…

…

Okay!

The asylum it is!

And then, Kyoko was marching happily to go admit herself to an institution when…

…someone pulled on her hoodie and her march was stopped by a simple jerk in the neck.

"Hey!"

Ai didn't respond to Kyoko's outburst instead, pulled her along her hood, like a mother cat carrying her kitten off when the bad kitten was misbehaving—Bad Kyoko.

"Ai, _Let. Go!_" Kyoko shouted out.

"I will, we need to talk."

"I can walk!"

"Yup, right back to Tokyo. I'm not gonna let my effort go to waste after all the trouble I took to find this lady just 'cause you're being a wimp." Ai said nonchalantly.

"I'm not a wimp!"

"Yeah? Then, what were you about to do just now? Go turn yourself in for the nut house?"

Kyoko kept quiet because Ai had nailed on the spot. "Jeez, and I thought I was crazy." Ai muttered under her breath.

By then, a crowd had gathered watching Kyoko from the side, befuddled how she was being dragged away by…the air?

Ai ignored all the stares and dragged Kyoko (Who said ghosts are just intangible phantoms?) off to a quiet spot where no one could find them.

"Why are you running away?" Ai asked her.

"I'm…I'm not!"

Ai sighed, feeling drained for the first time. "I'm not telling you to go in there and demand that she loves you. I just want you to see for yourself what kind of woman she is…she's had a hard life."

"I _know_ what kind of woman she is! Don't you dare tell me you know _her_ better than me!"

"Do you? Do you really? Why she left you? Why she's the way she is? I don't believe that all mothers can ever truly hate their children…not unless they sold their soul to the devil. She had you in her womb for nine months…and it was hurt like hell for her to have you. After going through that kind of pain…you don't just throw them away…not without a good reason."

"Well then, she must've sold both her soul and heart to the devil because that's exactly what she did."

"Yeah? What do _you _know? You were too little to understand her reasons back then so, your mind painted her as a heartless witch—I'm telling you she had her reasons. If it makes you more comfortable don't tell her anything. Just…just go see her." Ai silently pleaded to her. It broke her heart to see a mother and daughter distancing themselves from each other when she had a perfectly wonderful relationship with her mother. It just…it was a waste to her.

Kyoko was having an internal battle with herself. The little girl in her wanted to go and see her mother after for so long and believe in Ai's words—that her mother had a reason for treating her the way she did when she was small. But, the grown up her, the one who was betrayed too much and lost her heart told the little girl not to get her hopes up because there was no guarantee for anything that Ai had said.

She wanted to hate her mother but even after sixteen years she gave up on that idea just like she gave up her one desire when she was in Kyoto—for her mother to accept her.

Now, she couldn't see her mother more than as something of her entire life's source of displeasure. Her entire existence was denied and she had to go through hell, making herself believe that the boy she thought she loved the most, working her ass of for him and in the end, set herself for further heartache. She wasn't about to put her heart on the line again for something that she knew would fail. And a long time ago, a small portion of her heart knew that she would get heartbroken when she made Shoutaro her anchor of sorts.

"And…what should happen if I refuse?" Kyoko asked Ai with a hard glint in her eyes.

Ai looked as if she had expected this response from Kyoko said coolly. "Nothing will happen…you can go back to Tokyo and do absolutely nothing about it. Mogami Saena will no longer be a part of your life. And, you can forget about his whole business…" Ai told Kyoko honestly. When Kyoko's jaw dropped and she looked as if Ai had dropped a bomb on her, Ai continued. "I think I already told you, whatever happens, will happen because you want it to happen. I'm not going to force you to see your mother or force my opinion on you." She said simply.

Kyoko was starting to doubt. If Ai had been forcing her then, she would have fought back with all she had. But now…she wasn't so sure that she could go back on that train and forget about the fact that her mother lived about 20 minutes from where she lived by train.

_What now?_

By telling her she had the choice to go home by her own free will. Kyoko's previous rebellious spirit had all abandon her body…

Kyoko recalled Saena's cold glare that made her shudder from its intensity.

_I never did anything wrong…so…why did she look at me like that?_

Whenever Kyoko got a mark less than 100…she was told that it wasn't good enough.

_Why was it 100 not good enough for her? Why was I not good enough?_

Kyoko sighed. "I don't know, Ai." She said, honestly. This was a battle she had long given up fighting. Being told she should try fighting it again was a little shocking to Kyoko.

"Either way, maybe you should get something to eat first? I know I used to work better with something warm in my tummy." Ai advised her.

"Mmm, sounds like a good idea." Kyoko smiled up to Ai, thanking Ai silently for the temporary distraction.

Ai smiled amiably in response and went on about what Kyoko should eat. There were so many things she didn't know existed in Japan that she recently discovered. Therefore, she wanted to take the chance to see them all for herself. She told Kyoko that when she was still alive, she didn't go out much because she was afraid to go outside alone which made Kyoko wonder what kind of life did Ai lived before. Kyoko just listened as Ai made idle conversation as they searched for a place to eat.

Finally they came across a small café at a corner of a street and after Ai pointed how cute it was did Kyoko decided to enter the establishment. Kyoko wanted to be thoughtful for Ai for once after helping her with everything. Besides, Kyoko was a bit curious about the cute shop too.

The inside of the café was very simple and clean styled after western designs, while retaining that homey feeling you'd get from old houses. The floor was tiled with brown oyster-shell color. There was a long counter for customers that preferred to eat while looking at the view outside. The view consisted of a street with trees and flowers blooming outside. There were small tables and chairs, lined up symmetrically, a fair space between the furnishing for the waiters or waitresses to move about. The walls were painted a sort of crème color like…eggshells? Kyoko wasn't certain but it made the place look marvelous. It gave the café an air of a refinement. There were few people, considering that it was Golden Week, Kyoko was surprised that the café wasn't full of people but she was grateful for the lesser crowd. She wanted to think, that could only happen in a quiet environment.

She sat down at the long counter, enjoying the blossoms. The waitress gave her a menu and she smiled as she ordered hot tea and a salad and a few tuna sandwiches. Kyoko had no appetite today but she wasn't about to neglect her health because of it. She was on her third sandwich as Ai 'ooh'ed and 'aah'ed at the Sakura trees, when a loud yell interrupted her peace.

"What do you mean no! It's my daughter's birthday! And it's Golden Week!" a woman shouted in her cell phone. Kyoko watched curiously, wondering what riled the woman so much. Ai watched too.

A few curses were exchanged and the person on the other line must have said something important because the anger on the woman's face suddenly faded and there were a sigh of defeat that echoed throughout the café.

The woman slumped on the counter as she promptly ended the phone call. She gave a sigh that seemed to last a whole year. Unable to leave a person in trouble alone, Kyoko approached the woman.

"Um, konnichiwa, is there something troubling you ma'am?" Kyoko asked kindly.

"Oh no, I yelled again didn't I?" The woman asked. But the question seemed to be more directed to herself than to Kyoko so she kept quiet. "Sorry, just a bad day at work. I'm supposed to be home right now but my boss is asking that I go back to the office quickly. There are some problems and if there weren't any she wouldn't have asked me to work on Golden week." The woman grumbled.

Kyoko sympathized with her. It must be hard to be forced to work on a holiday. "Anou, is there anything I can do to help?"

The woman's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets when she heard Kyoko's request. "No, no." she protested. "I didn't tell you my problems so that you can help me." She told Kyoko sighing again. "I'm just getting old I guess."

"It's not that, I would really like to help."

"But…won't your family be worried?" the woman asked, concerned.

Kyoko's eyes clouded for a moment, and it worried the older woman that she hesitated to answer her question. "No, they won't." Kyoko answered honestly.

"It would really help me out, if you don't mind boring jobs…"

Kyoko smiled. "Please take care of me." Kyoko bowed slightly as she was still sitting.

"Ahaha, I seemed to have forgot my manners there for a minute there, I'm Shi, you?"

"Mogami Kyoko."

After that Shi insisted that she paid for Kyoko's meal as her thanks. She drove Kyoko to her office that about five minutes away from the café. It turned out that her 'office' was a publishing company. The situation was the author that they were contracting with had bailed out on them but not without taking a huge amount of money. There was no story to publish and they had to cover a deadline deal that they had already promised to a few buyers. The lady-boss wasn't around when it happened so, everything became a mess. When she got back to the company there was all sorts of problems that seemed to have arose out from nowhere.

"It's a real pain in the ass." Shi told Kyoko, annoyed.

"Gomenasai, I hope I will be able to help you, although it might not do you much good…" Kyoko offered weakly.

"Hmm, I can sense you speak like that a lot…"

"How did you know?"

Nana grinned, "It's a talent it's how I can stand lady-boss." She said, winking at Kyoko.

They stepped out of Shi's car, as Shi kept talking about the 'lady-boss.' Ai looked a little pale, well paler than she normally is and she's a ghost. So, that's saying something. Thinking back, Ai was uncharacteristically quiet throughout the whole journey.

Shi took out a card and swiped at the back door behind the receptionist. Kyoko had a bad feeling for some reason, but…a promise is a promise and she had always kept her word to others. She wasn't about to start breaking them now, just for a fleeting worry.

As soon as they entered a book was thrown at them, Kyoko ducked as soon as her grudges detected there was an extreme anger radiating in the vicinity they were thrilled. The book hit Shi straight in the face. The woman's body was propelled back (anime-style) that if Kyoko wasn't aware of the hidden danger, she would have found the whole thing rather funny.

_What I the world….? _

"Shuhei, you stupid man! What do you mean it's Tsuyuno's birthday? Did you think I'm that stupid?" a loud voice yelled. Kyoko felt as if there was a knife twisting in her heart, that voice…so familiar…

She turned her eyes towards Ai who kept glancing worriedly at her. She turned her head with an almost dream-like slowness.

Fierce brown eyes glared at Shi. She recognized…those eyes…

_Mother…?_

* * *

**I did a little research, but I'm not completely sure so don't get mad, but apparently, Jinbōchō (****神保町****?) is a neighborhood of Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan, known as Tokyo's center of used-book stores and publishing houses, and as a popular antique and curio shopping area.**

**I calculated the distance between Jinbocho and Marunouchi, which are both located in Tokyo. So, I'm guessing the distance between these two are around 20-30 km (roughly, by my estimation) and since Japan's bullet trains are pretty fast (since the train travels 10km per 5 minutes) Amazing, ne?**

**Most of the fanfics I've read, Saena is always the bad guy, I don't like to write characters that are 'bad' and is 'good.' I prefer to write characters that have a different set of goals and thoughts, it makes reading it more enjoyable. **


	7. Escape II

**Misleading! Ha-ha, it seems that my sadistic side had recently appeared, I'm not normally like this…but because everyone was mean and didn't review much, I get to torture you~. Here's what happens next!**

**Chapter 7: Escape Part II**

* * *

_Mother…?_

"Ow! What the hell was that for?!" Shi yelled, unsatisfied with the head abuse he acquired by the flying thick book.

"Shuhei, what were you doing when this company was in a crisis. Picking up girls again?" Saena asked rhetorically. Shuhei was well-known for his play-boy tendencies.

_Picking up…girls? Shi is a…_

"You are a divorced man with a married daughter…what would your grandchildren think of their grandfather that goes around flirting younger women?"

_What? Did she just say…a man?_

"You're a man?" Kyoko quietly asked.

The atmosphere stilled. It would seem that Kyoko's question broke the tense air. Saena didn't see her, in her rage.

"Who's this?"

"Ah, this is Kyoko-chan…" Kyoko winced at the intimate use of her name by a complete stranger she had just met today yet again.

"I'm here to help!" Kyoko yelled out to interrupt whatever it is that Shi wanted to say, in fear of Saena finding out who she really is. Both adults were thrown off by the enthusiastic reply. Saena narrowed her brown eyes at the young amber-eyes girl. Could this girl be…?

"That's not necessary, go back home." Saena said coldly.

Kyoko's heart inwardly deflated at the clear rejection in Saena's words, she was always getting rejected by this woman…

"No can do, lady-boss. She's with me."

"I didn't permit you to take new staff, Shuhei."

"She's not—she's just my helper for the day."

"How can you let a random stranger …?"

"Tch, you gotta' relax Sae-Sae…see otherwise these wrinkles are gonna get even worse." Shi told her, nudging a finger at her forehead. Saena covered her forehead, self-conscious of Shi's statement.

"Do what you want! But if this girl is a spy…"

"She's not…I have an eye for this remember?"

Saena couldn't rebut that, because no matter how goofy this man looked, he was actually pretty smart and cunning. She had to remind herself always to never let him get the best of her…

She turned to Kyoko, her eyes wary. "Girl." She addressed her. "Kyoko-chan!" Shi offered and Kyoko felt like slapping the man for not being able to shut up.

At this, Saena's eyes narrowed even further. "What's your family's last name?"

"M…Mogami…" Kyoko answered automatically and then inwardly face-palmed. Why did she tell her the truth!?

"Where do you live?"

"Um, Tokyo?"

"Is that an answer or a question?"

"An answer! I live in Tokyo."

"Woaw, Sae-Sae, I thought you didn't want to hire anyone? We've got a tight budget as it is." Shi called out. Saena frowned at the interruption while Kyoko sighed in relief.

"Shut up, Shuhei…" and there was another insistence from Shi yelling, 'Kyoko-chan, Sae-Sae's being mean to me!' "…and your eyes?"

Kyoko reached up and touched an eye, feeling a little self-conscious of her unusual eye coloring. "It's…contacts. I thought they looked pretty…" Kyoko lied for the first time, feeling very exposed with the whole experience. This was worse than the photo shoot!

Saena looked skeptical for a minute and then let it go with a small sigh. "I need the previous documents on the contract so, I can extend the deadline. There's got to be loop holes in there somewhere." Saena informed. As Shi turned away, Saena added. "And Shuhei?" Shi turned back and raised a brow, in question. "It better be by today." Kyoko sighed in relief that her identity wasn't revealed.

Promptly, Saena strutted away. While Shi, Kyoko noted with horror, was looking appreciatively at her mother's, *ahem* back side. Well can you blame her? It is kind of disturbing…

At Kyoko's horror look, Shi or was it Shuhei cleared her—his throat. "Well, let's get to work, Kyoko-chan!"

"Um, Shi-san…"

"Yes?"

"You're really a man?"

Shi laughed at this, inwardly of course. "Kyoko-chan, I'm hurt!" He faked a gasp. "How can you think that?! Is this man really _too _beautiful?"

"(_After I saw you obviously checking out my mother's butt_?) Yes." Kyoko answered curtly, ignoring his second question, choosing to only answer the first.

Shi dramatized the whole thing by posing a fainting pose (You know the one where people are on their knees and holding up a hand on their foreheads, pinky held out) "Then forgive me for my beauty for I have sinned. I have made yet another child fall in love with this beauty."

Unable to take it anymore, Kyoko released her demons to strangle the man. But even they were blinded by the light of stupidity that Shi emitted and went back to recover in the dark corners of the room.

_This man…is a perfect example…_

Shi knelt as if in a prayer.

…_of a complete_…

Shi posed another pose of begging for forgiveness.

…_idiot._

Somehow, Kyoko managed to convince Shi to repent his sins by working…

Yeah, the world works in mysterious ways, ne?

They were in the middle of stacking and un-stacking various files that were jumbled up. Men really are messy because Kyoko noted that Shi's desk was cluttered with junk…both related and unrelated with work. She found a few notes with hearts and a (girl's) number. There was a few threat letters from boyfriends of the girlfriends that had fallen in love with Shi. An expired ticket to the amusement park and a rotting half-eaten pizza was scavenged from his desk.

Oh, and she also found an erotic book…

!

He dared to bring such a thing to his workplace!?

Kyoko sighed; she could never understand men and their compulsive messy (and dirty) behaviors. She dumped another stack of love notes for Shi into the trash can (Yes, they had to take a trash can) and she stumbled on a rather old photograph.

The photo was dated from 1996. There were several people in it. She recognized Shi first with the gaudy color hair. It was pink of all sakes! Then…there was her…mother?

What was her mother doing in the photo?

Kyoko recognized with the scowl on her face that she had always associated with her childhood. But…she looked happy for some reason. Kyoko couldn't really say for certain but despite her frown she really didn't seem to mind the hand that the man next to Shi had slung over her shoulders.

In fact, if Kyoko saw right, she looked a little bashful with the attention? Who was that man?

"Oh, I thought I lost it." Shi exclaimed. "Ah, this brings back memories…" Shi said, his eyes reminiscing his youth.

"Is that the…'lady-boss'?" Kyoko asked, her tongue feeling weird calling her mother that.

Shi laughed out heartedly. "Sure is, you've got good eyes. And right here, is my best friend!" Shi told her, pointing at the mysterious man. "His name's Kuze…fun guy. They were dating you know?"

Kyoko blinked at the statement. What was he talking about? "They?" she asked.

"Yeah, you know, Kuze and Sae-Sae…they were in love."

Kyoko couldn't believe it, for such a long time, she had only remembered Saena's cold stares she forgot that Saena had also once been a teenager.

"Oh." One-word syllables were all Kyoko could manage because the shock still lingered.

"It was a bit of an impossible match but they fit. She was really in love with him, if you didn't know her, you wouldn't have guessed…"

"And, where's he now?"

"He…was in an accident…he died."

Kyoko never thought that her mother had even been in love…she didn't know what she might have lost because she always seemed to be too cold to even be human.

After that, Kyoko didn't ask anymore because Shi was forcing himself to smile, he didn't say it but Kyoko knew it. She could tell. They cleaned up his desk in silence until they found the contract that they were looking for, and continued to work in silence. After that, Kyoko was told to file the papers to their respective shelves and she did boring office jobs like printing and filing, mostly.

Shi was surprisingly very serious when it came to work he had a game face on. And there was even no flow of conversation that he usually kept up when he was off-duty. All Kyoko's answers were replied with curt short answers that explained most of what she needed to know. Kyoko was wondering how her mother could stand such a man, but now she knows that Saena probably put up with it because he was quite efficient when he choose to be. He was a good worker with great skills but it was a shame he couldn't be a little less gaudy when he wasn't working. Well, no one's perfect…

Shi excused himself to the toilet and Kyoko gave him a short reprimand for not needing to know that since she was only a 'helper' so, there was no need to report to her his every action. Shi laughed at her and left.

At that time, fate decided to test Kyoko it seems, as Saena suddenly appeared when Shi was gone.

"Are you done?" Saena asked her.

The question surprised her, as it broke the quiet rhythm she was accustomed to and this made her drop the stacks of files she was holding. But she quickly caught them before they could crash down to the ground and jumbled the papers inside. Saena just watched as Kyoko slowly put down the files and searched for the contract they had found.

"Why are you here?"

Again, Kyoko was surprised with Saena's abrupt questions. She didn't remember her mother being this talkative. It had surprised her to no end that the woman had shouted at Shi and even going as far as throwing a book at him. Shi only looked annoyed with the treatment, but no even an ounce surprise had shown up on the older man's face. It must be a daily occurrence for them then…Kyoko pondered on the possibilities.

"I…wanted to get away from Tokyo for a while." Kyoko said to her. It wasn't exactly a lie. Kyoko didn't want to be present during the photo exhibition. She was too embarrassed to face those people who might criticize her amateur poses. That's why when Ai had told her to take a train to Jinbocho, she relented. Otherwise, Kyoko might have protested first to why she had to go there anyway. And most of all, she wanted to avoid Shoutaro for a while because she already thought the possibility of him becoming interested in her because of the exhibition photos…

She was a little grateful for Ai, when she found out she had a father but…she was a little concerned being around her mother…she was still wary of the fact that her mother will hurt her.

"…I see." Saena said. "You shouldn't be running from your problems, girl." She advised. Kyoko doubled back from shock.

_What?_

Kyoko's mouth was gaping open like a fish. If Saena saw it, then she didn't show it because she continued. "Take it as a past experience from the older one. You're pretty useful today so, don't go messing that up." With that, she took the file in Kyoko's hand and walked away without once glancing at Kyoko's face.

"She means that you're a good kid; don't ruin your life just because you're afraid. She's talking from experience…" Shi appeared behind Kyoko, explaining Saena's words. "She's quite easy to misunderstand if you don't take the time to get to know her. She means well, but she doesn't know how to convey it properly so, most of the time she offends people." Shi said with a smile, laughing.

Kyoko bit her lip. This was her chance to ask! But…did she really want to know?

"When…when you say 'from experience', what…what do you mean?"

"About Sae-Sae? …well, remember my friend, Kuze? In a way, she ran away from him when she got pregnant. Kuze thought she wanted to break up with him so, he let her go, thinking it was for the best. But when he found out, he went after her. I don't know what happened…but the next thing I knew was I was at the hospital, Sae-Sae was crying and Kuze was dead." Shi told her. His eyes were closed and he talked as if he was in another timeline. He wasn't in the present nor the future, but living back the past. A complicated smile flitted across his face, and Kyoko remembered Ai's smile when they first met. Speaking of which…where was she anyway? Kyoko hadn't seen her the whole time she was moving about the small office.

Why is it that the people she knew smiled when they actually wanted to cry? It didn't make any sense to her…if you want to cry then, you should cry. Though, that rule doesn't apply to her. If she wanted to cry then, she would cry but…she'd do it in her room where no one can worry about her. Is it the same for other people?

"Then, what happened?" Kyoko asked feeling a little bolder compared to before. She was here to find out what happened to her mother right? So, she should ask someone who knows because she doesn't have a clue about it.

Shi was a little quiet afterwards. "That…is personal. If you want to know…then, you should ask Sae-Sae. She might tell you or she might not…" Shi admitted to her. He might be a lot of things but he knew what to tell people and what to keep a secret. This was definitely personal and should only be revealed by the person who lived through the whole experience.

Kyoko stopped asking after that. She would have to gather the courage to ask her mother…

…Forget it; she was a coward after all…

Hours passed and Kyoko found herself staring at the dark sky…

Darn it! She forgot about the train and now she was stuck here till the next train. And it wouldn't be here until next sunrise…which meant that she would have to book at an inn until tomorrow morning. She checked her purse, there was a few hundred yen left…it was a little tight (sorry I don't know how Japan's real value of currency so, overlook this one. Unless, you want to tell me how it works.) She would have to carefully spend it. There was the ticket back that she needed. So, that leaves her with approximately two hundred yen…which cannot possibly rent her a room for one night at any decent inns. She didn't think of this possibility so, she didn't bring much out with her today…

What should she do?

"Kyoko-chan? What are you still doing here?" Shi asked her, baffled that the girl hadn't gone back to her lodging for the night. It was dangerous out at night, especially for young girls. You never know when a pyscho was out and about.

"Ah, Shi-san. Good evening." She greeted him, ignoring his question.

Shi laughed at her. "It's almost night now Kyoko-chan. But, you didn't answer my question, what are you _still _doing here?" Shi asked again, stern this time.

Kyoko's face distorted when her stupid plan didn't work. She greeted him so with the wrong time that he would forget to ask her that. Like I said, stupid plan. She laughed nervously.

"Ah, it would seem that I missed the last train and I don't have enough money for lodging…"

"Kyoko-chan, why didn't you bring enough money when you're coming to Jinbocho?" Shi sighed, annoyed with Kyoko's irresponsibility. He had a daughter of his own and felt a paternal concern for the young girl. His hand came up to his pocket jeans to lend enough money for her to pay for a lodging tonight at the very least when…an idea struck him. He looked at her carefully once more.

_There's something familiar about this girl…_he thought.

Kyoko is a good and a diligent girl. He knew that she was honest and that she wasn't a spy from their competitors. However, he had a nagging feeling that told him she wasn't what she appeared to be…

"I have a great idea Kyoko-chan! Why don't you stray with Sae-Sae tonight?" Shi suggested to her with faked enthusiasm.

If Kyoko had been paying attention she would have controlled her face from slipping into traumatized shock but as it is there was only one thought on her mind;

_Oh shit!_

…. (To be continued…)….

* * *

**Ha, I'm, back! Well not really, I actually have an exam that I ****should ****be studying for but because I couldn't take it anymore I decided to post this. See, this is how much I love you guys. I've been working on this chapter gradually for the past two months so that this doesn't disrupt my studies. Tell me what you think of Saena. I want only good things! Just kidding, but seriously I really don't like where Saena is the bad guy **_**all **_**the time. It gets boring to read after a while. **

**P.s: I'm not updating the next chapter until;**

**- I'm back home from matriculation in two weeks time.**

**-I get 30+ reviews. (where are they?!)**

**-and I'm struck by inspiration (which is not hard once I'm sitting in front of the laptop…I think)**

**Tee-hee, reviews! _**


	8. Chapter 8

**I think I've been neglecting Ren for far too long (FORGIVE ME REN!)**

**Some of you asked whether Reino will be making an appearance because I'm feeling a little generous today, I'll tell you…YES! To have a ghost wandering around and no Reino is like chocolate cake without coffee frosting! (Totally weird.) Thanks to LittleLiar666 for pointing out a major timeline distortion in the previous chapter but, um, I'm asking for those who know Japan's currency to ignore one minor detail in my previous update…I don't think I'll change anything but the date the photo was taken. Sorry. Well then, let's proceed with the story. Hope you enjoy this one 'cause I had to bang my head against the wall for two weeks for this one to come out…Just kidding!**

* * *

"_It's all __**your **__fault!"_

"_She's just a stupid girl…"_

"_Wai…__**no**__, damnit __**don't do it**__!". Ai looked back at the flustered teen, he was panting and all semblance of his usual calmness evaporated. She smiled sadly at him. He panicked, trying to convince her that what she was about to do would not make her pain lessen…but, she shook her head slowly, she turned her pained brown eyes to the boy. _

"_I love you—very much…but I can't live with this—I'm sorry… Bye-bye." She whispered to him softly, feeling the wind pushing against her back and carrying her last words to him. Her eyes watered and felt to world spin around her. All the while she heard him scream in anguish…. _

Ai blinked her ghostly eyelids, suddenly alert and alive, well not exactly alive…What a dream—Ai laughed, that wasn't a dream. It was her memories. Damn, and she had hoped that they wouldn't be able to follow her to the afterlife.

_I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I never meant for you to be hurt because of me…_

* * *

_Tick…tock…tick…tock…_

Lory Takarada was a…unique extraordinaire in show-biz. Ren could not wrap his mind as to how the man had been able to survive for so long. _Flamboyant _is one word that greatly described one aspect of Lory Takarada. However, the man had that particular trait in one too many endeavors and was, still has a ridiculous abundance of it in his everyday life. Being flamboyant is one thing but too much of it can really turn you into public enemy number one. No one likes a show-off and in some ways, Lory's extremities and oddities had brought the LME through some tough situation due to his random decisions.

_Tick…tock…tick…tock…_

Ren entertained the notion that Lory would understand for once and just _support _his decision, instead of meddling in every detail of his life. The man meant well but sometimes it drove Ren up the wall with how Lory tried to _help _him. When he said help, it meant, doing things that he didn't ask him to do…let's not even go how a stripper managed to get into his apartment and stalked him for days on end because of a certain father-figure who he respects…(can anyone guess who this guy is?)

"Ren-sama, Lory-sama is ready to see you." Ren looked up to the tall dark-skinned man employed by Lory. This time, the dark man was wearing a ninja suit completea katana at his hip and a slip, covering his mouth and nose. Only his black irises were visible to Ren, the rest of him was black.

"Thank you Sebastian." Ren said.

The man acknowledged him with a nod and turned to lead Ren to Lory's office. Ren had been there more than once and already knew the interior of Lory's home but still, he followed the protocol for all business-partners and strangers alike because that's what they had painted relationship to the outside world—An employer and an employee.

Ren let out a shaky breath. He hoped for the best.

"Ren! It's been a while so, how's your vacation coming along?" Lory asked him cheerfully but they both knew Ren wasn't there for small talk."

"Actually, Takarada-taicho…I'm here about ending that vacation _you forced on me_ and get back to work." Ren said in his gentleman's smile. Lory's own smile didn't drop because he was expecting Ren to come to him with this favor in mind.

"Oh? I thought you deserved the vacation because your last photo-shoot went disastrously…they wanted you to look the part of a _man in love_—you showed them a _high school boy's crush_…hmm, so this is quite _hard_ for me to decide Ren-kun." Lory smiled sarcastically. Ren winced from the blows delivered. It was not hard for Lory to decide that he was not yet ready to come back into the field or at least go into the field that he _wanted._

"I don't understand why you were against that photo-shoot Takarada-taicho, everyone said it was alright." Ren defended.

"It wasn't even satisfactory to me or to Director Takamori. We both agreed that you were very immature during the photo-shoot. You failed to give Director Takamori what he wanted, Ren. I had already warned you that you weren't ready for that kind of photo-shoot but you didn't listen and went for it anyway. You agreed if the photos weren't up to my standards then, you would do everything that I asked of you. I'm telling you to retire Ren, this isn't for you." Lory sighed desolately.

Ren gritted his teeth in anger. "Don't I get a say in this?"

"No."

* * *

"I don't run a nursery here, Shi." Kyoko flinched from the harsh tone Sanae was using. It was obvious the woman was very tired and being forced to house a stranger for the night seemed like it wasn't in her top things to do….

"Aw, come on Sae-Sae, have a heart. The girl is basically stranded here for the night. The last train's gone and she can't come to my place because I live alone now. Think of what will happen to her reputation!" Shi exclaimed dramatically. Saena listened to his rambling and turned a sharp eye to Kyoko who suddenly found the floor very interesting, fidgeting slightly.

Saena sighed. She pushed off the doorframe with her arm that she was leaning on prior a few seconds ago. "Get in. No noise. No questions and I'll house you for the night." Then, abruptly, she turned away from the door and her uninvited guests, giving Kyoko no time to absorb the information but Shi was already shouting his thanks and was ushering Kyoko inside the apartment.

Oh brother, this is going to be a long night, Kyoko mused, sweating at how she would tip-toe so, that Saena didn't figure who she really was.

* * *

The night was a little cold but Ren paid no mind to it. He…just needed to _get out _of Tokyo. _**Yes, **_he had hand-picked where he would start his career, Tokyo was _perfect_. Here, no one knew him and he could achieve his goals without the interference from the mindless gossiping the media would have inflicted on his daily life _if _they knew who he _really _was.

However, he had also thought Lory would be there supporting him from the back and would actually act like an adult for _once_! And maybe, that's why he was so pissed. Lorry was the one who had offered the way out for him those years ago and to have the man you _trusted_ pulled the rug under you was a real _treat_, he thought inwardly.

_So close, _he thought infuriated. _What did they mean that I didn't understand love? I've dated before. But none of my relationships had lasted very long. Lory said that was my fault. How can that be?! The women he dated fell out of love with him, not his fault. He let them go…I mean…if you love something then, you have to let it go…that's what he had thought when he agreed to end all his relationships. They deserved better than him and he couldn't understand why no one saw it from his own perspective. It was bloody infuriating to have to explain something so simple and be misunderstood for it and called a 'cold' person for it. _

"If it was her…she'd understand…" he smiled dryly. What was he thinking? Go and track down an old memory—and do what exactly? He doubted if she still remembered him.

* * *

As it turns out that wasn't so hard to do but she noticed her mother liked to smoke—a lot. She didn't remember that though, her mother had a crisp, office-lady air about her coupled with the ruthlessness of a tycoon and robot-like efficiency. The inside of the apartment was neat, but Kyoko had expected that much from her mother. It would have been disconcerting had the condition of her mother's living quarters been otherwise.

"What are you doing, girl?"

Kyoko jumped instinctively. Surprise etched onto her face, feeling guilt crawling up her spine getting caught. "Um, sorry, but the photo was…" Kyoko didn't know what came over her. She was just so surprised from learning her mother's history and another photo of Saena and her father just drew her to it without second thoughts. They were just so _happy_.

It was a foreign concept to her. As Kyoko continued to stare at the remaining memories of her father she heard Saena sighed.

"Kuze deserved better."

Kyoko blinked. "What?"

"That was what I thought when I left the man. He was brilliant albeit a little idiotic. I was just an uptight little bird as Shi puts it. I didn't know why he picked me either—never got the chance to ask him." Saena explained. When Kyoko continue to blink in a confused manner. Saena let out an exasperated groan, which was quite uncharacteristic of her.

"Did you love him?" Kyoko asked quietly.

Saena didn't answer immediately. She looked out the window on the stool she was perched on. Then, she sighed. "That was a long time ago but yeah, he was the only man to see my worth. I still love him."

"How do you know you were in love?"

Saena blinked her eyes to the girl. She sounded so broken. Tch, it wasn't her problem. The older woman frowned. "Why ask me about it?"

"I thought I loved this person from a long time ago. Recently, I thought maybe I didn't love him not really, because he was the only one willing to look at me—even though it was obvious I was just his goffer. That made it easy to leave him…it might have been different if he was a decent man." Kyoko talked as if she didn't hear Saena's question. They were quiet a long time after that. Each lost in their own world.

"I heard about your daughter from Shi…why did you give her away?" Kyoko lied.

Saena arched a brow at this. Shi told this girl about Kyoko? And suddenly, Saena felt weary, too old to be keeping secrets that no one was looking for. She might as well tell the girl, just to get the thing off her chest. "She was so much like him. Eager to please and pleasant to everyone. It irritated me and I didn't want her to leave me either."

"Why did you think she would leave you?"

Saena shrugged, the answer was useless now. "Everyone does it. All that I loved always went away. It would have killed me if she went too…so, I didn't let her become precious to me. It's stupid when I think about it now."

"Don't you want to go see her and make things right again?"

Saena rubbed the back of her neck in thought. Damn, the alcohol's really making her tongue slip. She hadn't told anyone so much of her past in one night before. Heh, who would the kid tell? "Nah, I'm the one who abandoned her and if I come back and mess her life up she'll hate me even more for it."

"What if she's having a hard life?" Kyoko asked softly.

Saena bristled. "Oi!" this startled Kyoko. "Who do you think that girl is?! She's got mine and Kuze's blood flowing through her. She'll be fine. Whatever shit she goes through, she'll make the most of it 'cause she's a Mogami!" Saena faltered a bit after that.

Kyoko stood up, slowly making her way to help Saena because the older woman seems to be leaning a bit too much to the side and Kyoko thought maybe she saw one chair of the stool was tipping before she went and steadied Saena. The crashing scent of alcohol made Kyoko stumble. Saena seems to be a talking drunk, apparently and she's had enough to tell Kyoko all that Kyoko wanted to know.

By then, Saena was half dozing and half-inebriated—which makes up for poor company…but amusing nonetheless. Saena was telling Kyoko lame jokes and pick-up lines that men used on her, complaining about how Shi was such an idiot slacker. Kyoko was tucking her into bed when Saena wailed for her boyfriend to never leave her—because she _loves _him so much and promised to change for the better. Kyoko's heart break. She forgave her mother for abandoning her…it still hurt but Kuze's death haunted her every day and Kyoko pitied her.

"Kyoko?"

"Hmm?"

"I love you." Saena was smiling, her eyes misting over as if she was reminiscing the past. She saw a little girl with pig-tails.

"What?"

"You're so pretty—pretty eyes like your father. Did I ever tell you about him? His name was Kuze. He was a good man but he fell for me. But I love him so very much and he loves me too." Saena giggled at this. "He had this biggest smile, you know. In fact, you smile like him too." Saena cupped Kyoko's cheek. Kyoko was shocked into a statue. She couldn't move this part of Saena she had never witnessed. It was like her brain was stopping all her motor movements so, that she can commit to record this moment until the day she died.

"You don't know just how much you are like your father." Saena said fondly.

Fondly? Saena had never regarded her that way before. Kyoko ached to tell the older woman that she would never leave her, especially not after she knew why her mother left her. It was a chance she realized—to live with her mother. She wasn't alone anymore and she also realized that Saena also had the same insecurities as her when it came to love.

* * *

"I can't believe I'm doing this." Ren muttered to no one in particular. When he remembered the little girl, he thought about how fond he was of her…maybe that was the kind of budding love Lory was talking about. He wasn't thinking and by the time his brain started to work again, it was 11 at night, nearing midnight and he was in front of the only ryoukan near enough to the forest that he met her again. What was he thinking? It was years when they met. What if the girl had moved? Or maybe she wasn't even a native in these parts. What if they had met coincidentally (there was a possibility that she was also on vacation with her family didn't escape him)? Even if she did live in these parts, what insurance that he had that she still remembered him. Afterall, he introduced himself as a fairy prince of all things; surely he was already casted of as one of her imaginations by now? She would be…she was six when she met him…she would be sixteen now—three years his junior.

Ren shook himself out of his musings and stepped out of his car. Hopefully, the ryoukan would still accept customer this late at night. He really could use the rest before heading back tomorrow.


	9. To confess or to not confess?

**I'm back! Sorry for not updating for a long time but I just got back from matrix. Graduated! I'm going to miss the faulty washing machines and the hikes from the dorm to the lecture halls…Oh well, on with the show people!**

**Chapter 9: To confess or not to confess? **

* * *

_Preview:_

_"I can't believe I'm doing this." Ren muttered to no one in particular. When he remembered the little girl, he thought about how fond he was of her…maybe that was the kind of budding love Lory was talking about. He wasn't thinking and by the time his brain started to work again, it was 11 at night, nearing midnight and he was in front of the only ryoukan near enough to the forest that he met her again. What was he thinking? It was years when they met. What if the girl had moved? Or maybe she wasn't even a native in these parts. What if they had met coincidentally (there was a possibility that she was also on vacation with her family didn't escape him)? Even if she did live in these parts, what insurance he had that she still remembered him. After all, he introduced himself as a fairy prince of all things; surely he was already casted of as one of her imaginations by now? She would be…she was six when she met him…she would be sixteen now—three years his junior._

_Ren shook himself out of his musings and stepped out of his car. Hopefully, the ryoukan would still accept customers this late at night. He really could use the rest before heading back tomorrow._

* * *

"Ren-sama?"

"Ah, thank you for accepting me, this late hour in the night. I apologize for the inconvenience, Okami-san." Ren bowed respectfully to the aging woman. Although the whites in her hair was prominence, she looked elegant receiving her late guest in her yukata.

"It is no trouble, Ren-sama. Our inn is open at all times…but it does make me wonder what has brought you to our door, so late at night." The old woman said, but sensing a slight tension from her young guest, she continued to speak. "Oho, but that isn't any of my business. My husband will show to your lodging for tonight, Ren-sama."

"Thank you very much, Okami-san." Ren bowed again respectfully before leaving the old woman to follow the stern looking brown eyed old man. Ren heard an almost whisper, "If only Shoutaro had the same manners…."

_Shoutaro? That name sounds familiar… _But Ren dismissed the thought, when the older man stopped in front of a room, soundless waiting for Ren to dismiss him.

"Thank you very much, Taichou-san." Ren bid the man. However, the man just curtly nodded his acknowledge and left Ren to retire for the night. Ren didn't think about what he would have to do tomorrow, instead he welcomed the comfort of sleep as if it was an old friend. He didn't dream and that was the best sleep he would usually get other than from the normal nightmares.

* * *

"Ngghhh…stupid alcohol." Saena grumbled from her sleep, looking very much like a mother bear awakening from her slumber.

"Good morning, Saena-san." She heard someone talk to her, her ears were ringing when in fact Kyoko had only whispered her greetings. As Kyoko hovered over Saena like a mother hen, giving her some panadol and buttermilk mixed with a few drops of lemon juice, Saena felt warmth overwhelming her at the attention. After slowly sipping the buttermilk, her head felt slightly better.

"I made breakfast. I hope you don't mind, Saena-san." Kyoko told her. Saena merely grunted something close to an affirmation, well, as close as it can get. Kyoko helped to prop Saena on the bed post, before darting off to get a plate for her host. Saena watched her with glazed eyes, remembering an event from a long time ago.

* * *

"_Mama…mama…Kyoko make breakfast." _

_Saena heard the little girl bouncing into the room before she even spoke. Saena propped her torso up by leaning on her elbows. Little Kyoko was grinning from ear to ear holding a plate of variety of jam sandwiches, waiting for her approval. This was when it didn't hurt so much to look at her child. When she remembered that it was a good thing the pain she had endured giving birth to her child._

"_Good job." She praised the child quietly but even then, her little eyes lit up with the praise and Saena couldn't bear to see those eyes. So, she carefully guarded her heart and put up her icy exterior. However, for that one time, Saena didn't lash out at the girl; instead she rubbed the little girl's head._

_Her daughter's face was one of shock. Saena had never willingly touched her daughter before but usually when she did it was to hit the girl. Her heart felt warm when her daughter blushed, her smile radiant and for the first time in her life, Saena thought her daughter looked lovely._

_For that one moment, Saena felt like a real mother but quickly chucked her thoughts aside, because that day was when she visited the Fuwa's. The day where she left her daughter in better hands but for now….she pulled the little girl into her lap and they silently ate their breakfast for the first and last time._

* * *

Kyoko came back, balancing a full tray of scrambled eggs, toast and a cup of coffee. When she noticed Saena staring at her, she gave her a sheepish grin and suddenly Saena knew who Kyoko was.

Her daughter had come back for her.

* * *

_What the hell am I doing?_

The President had somehow known that Ren was not in Tokyo at the moment and had called him up to tell him that he was glad Ren was taking the whole retirement thing more gracefully. They both knew the last bit was a lie but the President had always been a little sarcastic and had a satirical sense of humor. Ren didn't mind it that much, accepting the man's eccentric tendencies but he didn't care much for it when he was the butt of the joke, which was more often that he would like to admit.

So after that—unexpected, but expected phone call because Ren knew to only expect the unexpected for Lory Takarada, got his head reeling and the stress of it all just came crashing down on him. Even he didn't expect he would have a melt-down but when he started to abuse his messy futon and small bag that held his clothes, he realized sometime as he gazed the after-math.

He had thrown a petty tantrum inside his room…like a child. _So much for professionalism,_ Ren mused absently. It was still Golden Week so, he didn't have school to worry about and since he was forced to _not_ work, why not just stay here for a while? It didn't hurt anyone for him to go missing for a little while. He just….needed the break from his life…maybe he would go around the back, through the garden and into the little forest, behind the ryoukan. Ren had always felt calmer when he was near greenery.

Yeah, maybe a nice walk in the forest would clear his head and set some new perspective that would hopefully solve his current problems and maybe all of his problems period.

* * *

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have made you go. Now you're going to die and then, you're going to haunt_ me_!"

"I'm still waiting for that explanation, Kyoko."

Kyoko felt surreal about her current predicament. Did Saena Mogami really see through her disguise and call her on it? How, was she to know the woman would recognize her? Like, it's been _years_ since the last time Saena saw her. This was madness! And they were headed towards Kyoto, specifically going to the Fuwa's ryoukan and Saena had already called the Okami…Oh god, the Okami…the woman was probably going to kill her for letting Sho run off to Tokyo, with the idea of elopement in her stupid love-struck head. Then, she got _dumped_. The story of her life, and did she really want to tell her _mother_ about all her stupid escapade with Sho the stupid?

Kyoko groaned this was getting real awkwardly uncomfortable real fast; she was going to be _scarred_ for life. As if she needed another one, the one on her back was enough mental and physical scarring for one lifetime. And Kyoko idly wonders if she had pissed a king or something equivalent in the other dimension, which would explain the divine and sick cosmic joke being played on her right now. Saena was still waiting for why she wasn't in the Fuwa's ryoukan that was where she was supposed to remain until the day she died. Now, that was a thought, did her mother leave her there with the notion she would marry into the Fuwa's family and stay there forever. Once upon a time, the idea of being Sho's bride made her delirious with happiness, but now? It only made her want to bash her head against the wall, repeatedly.

How had she been so stupid to trust Sho, the stupid, to take care of her? He was a spoiled mama's boy! He wouldn't know the first thing about good honest work, he had never even lifted a finger when they went grocery-shopping or did anything but laze around all day. He relied heavily on his good looks, which made Kyoko curse for it to deteriorate rapidly when he hits his thirties. She wished for his hair to go bald, his teeth to fall out without reason and for his stupid obsession with pudding to catch up to him and scar him 'perfect' body and gain full flabby tummy. This made her feel immensely better but it didn't solve her problems.

Saena was tapping her heels impatiently. Kyoko mentally groaned. She really, really, really, didn't want to tell her mother the events that had transpired that lead her to run away from the Fuwa's resident and to Tokyo. But then, did she really have a choice in that matter?

Not really.

So, with an infinitely heavy heart and a boulder the size of Mount Fuji, representing her shame, she told her story to Saena. She didn't leave anything out because she didn't want to repeat telling the same horrid feelings when she thought that she would finally get her happy ending. She even told Saena about Ai, for some weird reason she trusted her mother enough to listen until the end and _not _judge. The last bit was important, otherwise, Kyoko had officially signed her own life to the loony bin.


End file.
